The Scourge of Gotham
by Dani Jones
Summary: Anna, a student at Gotham High, and her friends are thrown into a hair-raising horror when the Joker names Gotham High as his next target. To begin the destruction of a city, you must start with its future leaders!
1. Gotham High

I swear the clock was broken.

Not only was the class dragging on forever, but James was flicking things into my red-tinted hair again. I tried to ignore his silent taunts, but the more times I felt something hit the back of my head, the closer I became to turning around and hitting him, risking getting caught, and getting in trouble again. My hair was down to my mid-back, which made my hair an easy target for small flecks of paper. Ms. Brown kept droning as usual, and the class was in its usual stupor. Another piece of paper hit me on the back of the head, and I blew my top. I spun around in my chair, and opened my mouth ready to scream at that blasted James, when a balled -up piece of paper hit me on the back of the head.

At first, I froze, afraid that Ms. Brown had caught me doing something that she didn't approve of, and was going to put me down for a demerit. But I slowly turned around, and looked into the face of my best friend, Amy. She was looking at me wide-eyed, and shaking her head minutely. She glanced down towards the balled-up paper that had ricocheted off of my head, and was now lying on the floor.

I reached down and unrolled it. Scrawled quickly, and untidy were the words, _'watch it, don't let idiot James get you in trouble again.'_ Leave it to your friends to help you…then the bell rang. _Finally_…

I jumped out of my seat, and was out the door before anyone else had even stood up. Amy was quickly at my side, and my other friend, Holly, joined us from a class down the hall. Today was shaping to be a typical day at Gotham High.

"Wow, that's a new record!" Holly said enthusiastically.

"I can't _stand_ that class!" I said hotly. Amy chortled, and then spoke.

"Neither can I, but the grade matters for the rest of our lives."

"Leave it to you to point out the deep, dark, truth! We have to hurry, or else we won't get a table." I said back. My mood was lifting a little bit. My friends could make anyone happier. But that happiness ebbed away quickly, as Justin came walking towards us. Amy's blushed a furious red, and she put on a seductive smirk. Holly and I rolled our eyes. Justin and Amy embraced, and then gave each other an open-mouthed kiss. I kept walking, and Holly followed me.

"Aren't you going to wait for her?" Holly asked.

"No, let them have their fun making-out." I said back sarcastically. I noticed that she was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, and the temperature outside was near seventy degrees. I dismissed the thought, and we continued walking to the lunch room. Justin and Amy had been going steady since 10th grade, and in my opinion, things were getting a little too steamy between the two of them. And something else was nudging me, almost like a feeling of uncertainty. Like there was something wrong between them…I told Amy this once, and she said it was jealousy. I dropped it, and never brought it back up.

We finally reached the lunchroom, and there were plenty of empty tables. Holly and I picked a small round one next to the east windows. The school sat on top of a small hill, but the hill was large enough that you could see the entire city from the top. Gotham High was the farthest building on the east side of Gotham, which made it a _major_ pain to get to, since I lived on the west side of Gotham, on the city side of the bay. But I wasn't far enough from the city to escape the sounds of sirens. They were everywhere lately, since the Joker escaped from Arkham again. The lunchroom's windows faced the hill, so we couldn't see the city from where we sat. The windows facing the city were mainly in the Library on the upper level, on the west side.

Holly and I sat down, and gazed out the window like we always do, and we gazed out the window until we got bored, and then we took out our lunches. Holly had a small lunch, composed of a granola bar and an apple. She ate this everyday. Me on the other hand, I didn't eat anything for lunch. For some reason…I just seemed to 'kick the habit' of eating lunch.

Amy didn't come to lunch at all…we agreed that she was probably in a closet, or in the abandoned choir room getting frisky with Justin. But we shrugged it off. The bell soon rang for the last class of the day, and we both left for French.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Halfway through French, Mr. Kenneth gave up on trying to silence the class, and just let us talk. Amy was still not there with us…this worried me, but Holly didn't seem to care. She took out her small Covergirl mirror, and examined her pale face. I could see that she was mentally picking at her facial features. Her black hair shimmered in the white light, and her face shown brightly into the mirror.

The dismissal bell rang, and the room cleared within ten seconds. Holly and I accompanied each other to the front doors, and we waited for Amy at our usual spot. When she didn't come, we called her cell phone. The line rang twice, and then went to her voicemail.

_Hey, it's me._

_I'm not here…obviously._

_So leave me a message._

That nudging feeling came back, and it was making me nauseous.

_Something was not right._

………………………………………………………………………………………………

I burst through the door, and dropped my backpack on the floor as I walked towards the kitchen. My mother was putting something on the stove, and didn't look up at me as I entered noisily.

"How was your day?" she asked.

"Good."

"Good." She replied. I walked over to the pantry and began to rummage through it for a cereal that appealed to me at the moment. I ended up picking Coco Roos, and scuffing my feet over to the cupboard to get a bowl. I picked a small bowl with basketballs on it, and put it on the counter. Then I scuffed over to the fridge to get some milk. I opened the door, and groped with my hand for the milk. But it wasn't there.

"We're out of milk, honey. Sorry Anna." My mother said. I rolled my eyes, and turned around to face her.

"So how am I supposed to eat my comfort food?" I asked in an annoyed tone.

"Dry, I guess." She still didn't look up. I swiped the bowl off of the counter, and trudged down to my room, jumping down the stairs to the basement. I opened the door, and put my bowl on my nightstand, and then flopped onto my bed with an exaggerated sigh of exhaustion. Without looking, or lifting my head, I grabbed my remote for my stereo, and put on my favorite song at the moment, 'American Band', which is a re-make by Poison. In my opinion, they made it better.

My cell phone text tone went off, and I lifted my head to see who it was from. It was from Holly.

_Has Amy contacted you yet?_

I texted back quickly, but accurately! It really bothers me when people use 'MSN' abbreviations in texts. It drives me _insane_.

_No, I haven't seen her since lunch_

I waited with my phone in my hand for her to respond. She's a fast texter, luckily.

_Her mom just called me, and she hasn't come home from school at all._

I put my phone down and thought for a second. Worry was gripping my stomach, and I could feel my blood pressure rising. I didn't text back.

Where could she be? It's not like her at all to go missing like this? I sure hope Justin had nothing to do with this…if he did, I will take desperate measures. If he _touches_ her at all, or even lays a hurtful finger on her, I would _kill_ him.


	2. Justin's Secret

I went to school the next day wrought with anxiety. In fact, I was a nervous wreck!I walked into the school, and looked frantically, (but inconspicuously) around the commons area, looking at every face for Amy. I felt an arm hit me, and I looked at Holly, who had just stopped next to me.

"Did you hear anything?" she said anxiously.

"Not a thing." I said back. She looked at the floor.

"We'll find her, don't worry." I said with faked enthusiasm.

"You think so?" she said without looking up from the floor.

"Yeah, I do. In fact, she'll probably make fun of us for worrying about her!" we both chuckled, but the fear remained…

……………………………………………………………………………………………....

Amy wasn't in class, or at lunch. The worry we'd felt in the morning, was now turning to fear. Holly came to me in the hall, and shook my shoulder fiercely.

"Where is she?! Why isn't she in school?!" I saw tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"Calm down…she's probably sluffing with Justin. Don't worry…"

"But what if she's not? She wouldn't sluff for TWO days! What if she was kidnapped, and being tortured at this very moment, and we're not thinking about saving her?!" Her hand clenched on my shoulder, and she closed her eyes.

"Holly, um…ow." She took her hand off of my shoulder, but didn't open her eyes. I didn't know what to say, I didn't know how to comfort her, I didn't know what to do…This was turning into too much to handle.

I went through the rest of the day trying not to think about the things that could be happening to Amy. I was even considering telling an administrator, or going to the Police, but I didn't want to get too carried away just in case she was just sluffing a day. I was soon annoyed to find out that I had to stay after school for Debate, I texted Holly to let her know.

_I've gotta stay after for Debate, so don't wait for me._

She's a fast texter, so a reply came quickly,

_Okay_.

I like that about Holly, short and sweet, and not a lot of fluff.

……………………………………………………………………………………………....

My Debate practice went very well, and I was in the lead for first slot at the upcoming tournament. The excitement only lasted for a minute, and then fright gripped my stomach again. The feeling was like being carsick, but not the throwing up kind, the kind that makes you want to kill yourself because you feel that it will never go away, no matter what you try.

I dropped by my locker on the upper floor quickly, and put my Debate materials away. I marked the date for the tournament on my magnetic calendar quickly, and then turned to my pocket sized mirror stuck to the locker door. I pushed my hair up with my fingertips in a weak attempt to give it more volume, but it was the end of the day, so I wasn't too worried about it. And then I heard someone down the hall, wait…two people? They sounded like they were having some sort of argument…

Curious, I walked around the hall of the school. Gotham High is shaped almost like a semi-circle, but at a more of an obtuse angle. It looks exactly like an 'elbow-roni' noodle. So I walked around the rounded wall of the school, getting closer to the arguing.

"Stop it! Just stop-!" I could tell it was a girl saying it. But there was no reply from the other person. I thought I heard…grunting?

"Shut up!" the other person finally replied. There was a noise of scuffing shoes, a few bangs, and the girl began to whimper. I turned the corner to see, to my horror and relief, Amy and Justin.

But something was wrong.

I turned the corner just in time to see Justin backhand slap Amy onto the ground. She let out a shriek, and before I knew it, I was charging towards Justin. Rage gripped my body, and I felt my temperature blow its top. My mind wasn't functioning, I only had one objective…

_Kill Justin…kill him…_

I felt my shoulder swing back, and my fingers curl and clutch into a fist. I felt my left hand grab his right shoulder, spin him around, and I saw his face of surprise as I punched him as hard as I could in the face.

He fell to the ground with an, "Augh!"

I leaned over and yelled straight into his face.

"DON'T YOU _EVER_, _EVER_ TOUCH HER AGAIN, YOU…YOU-!!!" I couldn't even come up with an insult or a threat to frighten him with, I was so enraged.

"IF YOU DO, I WILL _KILL YOU_! DO YOU HEAR ME?!" I shouted again. I felt the air in my throat coming in short bursts, and my body was shaking from the rush of adrenaline. I glanced over at Amy. She was lying on the ground, gaping at me with a horrified expression. Her hand was over the spot on her face where Justin had hit her, and her body was racking with silent sobs. She blinked her eyes twice, and I saw the tears begin to spill over.

In one swift movement, I was over to her, picking her up quickly, but gently. We began walking back towards my open locker, and I took special care to make sure that I stomped on Justin's outreached hand as we passed. I glanced backwards, and saw Justin struggling to his feet. We turned the corner, putting Justin out of view, and behind us, we heard him bang his fists against the lockers lining the hall.

The noise echoed throughout the halls, and was joined by the sound of my slamming my locker closed as we walked past it. We walked in silence until we reached the front doors, and as soon as we passed the doors, her knees collapsed, and she fell into my arms sobbing.


	3. Beyond Imagining

I dragged her to my parked car in the almost vacant lot. I plopped her into the car, since she wouldn't support her own weight. I got in my side, not caring to buckle up, and turned on the car. I applied the gas with a little too much gusto, and we flew forward. I bet she didn't even notice.

I glanced over at her. Her sobs had subsided, but she was clutching her upper arms, and her knuckles were turning white.

"Amy? Please speak to me…" I said soothingly. I decided to take the indirect approach to getting her to tell me the story. I didn't want to turn the conversation into an interrogation, so I started with an indirect question. "Are you okay?"

She didn't answer right away, and I felt my temper rise once more, but I controlled it, and put it out quickly. My patience was dwindling.

"Mm-hmm." She muttered. I felt frustration rise again, and I lost my temper.

"What was he doing?! Why was he hitting you? How long has this been going on? Where have you been since yesterday? Do you have any idea how _worried_ everybody was about you?" I clutched the wheel dangerously, and looked ahead to try and drive safely. I needed to make a left turn, and the light in front of me was about to turn red, and I floored the gas.

Normally, I would have missed the median, and gone into oncoming traffic, but somehow, like in all of the action movies, I drove straight as an arrow in my lane.

_I need to have adrenaline rushed more often!_ I thought to myself. She inhaled a gulp of air, and I turned my full attention to her.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"Take your time." I said maybe a little too sharply. Instead of going home, I drove to the local park. I upped the curb on my first attempt at parking, so I reversed, and experienced my worst parking job ever. I turned the key to turn the car off, and I took them out of the ignition. Amy was still cemented to her seat. I wandered to the backseat, and took some random snacks off of the seats.

I walked over to the swings, and sat down, exasperated. She opened the door slowly, and walked to where I was sitting without looking up from her feet. She arrived at the swings, and sat down next to me, still not looking up. We sat in silence for an awkward moment, and then she spoke.

"Do you have any Aloe-Vera?" she said at normal volume. If I didn't know any better, I'd think by her tone that she was changing the subject.

"Ah…yeah, just a sec." I dashed back to the car, and reached into the glove compartment for the small bottle. I got it, and was back to the swings in record time. The adrenaline was wearing off; because I was huffing and puffing by the time I sat down. I handed the bottle to her, and she snatched it immediately. She rolled up the sleeves of her long-sleeved shirt, revealing a long string of bruises going up her arms.

Some of the bruises were yellowing, others were darker than ever. Some were in the shape of a handprint. Fury rose in my blood again, and I gripped the chain of the swing and waited for it to stop.

She opened the bottle and poured in onto a small circular red mark. I assumed it was a burn. It was just about the size of a cigarette.

"What's that?" I demanded.

"A burn…it was an accident." She muttered, not looking at me.

"Shut up." I said immediately. "This kind of mark is not an accident. Look where it is! In the exact center of your wrist!" she closed her eyes, and stopped rubbing for a second.

"You're right. Justin did it."

"How?"

"Cigarette."

"Why?"

"Last night, he wanted to have sex, and I said no, and he freaked." _Sex?!_

"What?! Explain, _now._" She launched into details about her 'vacation' from school.

"You see, it started when he kissed me in the hall. We retreated to the band room, like we usually do, and well…he wanted a little more. So we migrated to his car, and instead of picking up where we left off, he started the car, and took me to a place I'd never been…It was on the far side of town, down by the industrial plant."

"Continue." I snapped.

"Then he took out duct tape, and I wigged. I tried to get out of the car, and he grabbed my arm hard. It left a mark-"she motioned to the handprint mark on her upper arm. "And he was too strong for me, so I gave in. He taped my mouth closed, and took me into a room with three men and one with his back to me."

"No sex, though?"

"No." Whew…

"Did you get a look at the men? Names? Tattoos? Anything?"

"I only identified one. My dad's been on this case for almost two years now." Her dad was the second in command in Commissioner Gordon's office, and he'd been on the Joker escape forever. "He had a purple suit, a bad dye job…green; I think…um…black eyes, red lips, smeared face paint. He looked like a clown." She broke down crying totally spontaneously. I thought through her description in my head again, and suddenly, it knew exactly who it was.

_The Joker_.

She continued to explain that the Joker had no particular interest in her, as it seemed, and he ordered Justin to take her home. But he didn't…she went on to say that Justin had kept her hostage in his car for the remainder of her time.

"Where were you today?"

"He let me out about fifteen minutes ago, just before you came. He was about to take me home, and I came to get my stuff."

"How long had he been beating you for?"

"Since the beginning of 11th grade." Not exactly what I meant, but whatever.

"Why didn't you break up with Justin before he started beating you?"

"He told me that he knew people that would kill me and my family if I broke up with him. I see now…he wasn't lying!" she sobbed once again. I leaned my head, resigned against the chain, and closed my eyes, trying to sort out what I'd just heard.

_What am I going to do?_


	4. Prom Announcement

The school seemed happier the next day. Or maybe it was just me…since Amy had returned, everything seemed more pleasant. During the day, more and more things happened that gave me reasons to be happy. Like Justin disappearing, having the day be Friday, the clouds over Gotham has cleared a little bit, allowing some sun to shine through, and having my friends all back in one circle, safe, and sound.

Overnight, posters had gone up advertising the upcoming Senior Prom. They were plastered on every classroom door, in every hall, even on the lunch tables.

"Prom? Is it really that close to summer?" Holly asked as we sat down at the lunch table.

"Seriously, it seems like school started like two weeks ago." Amy replied.

"Who're you gonna ask?" Holly asked me.

"Um…you know, I don't really have anyone singled out." I muttered while dumping everything out of my lunch bag. "Do you have someone?"

"I think Ryan is going to ask me to go. He's nice." Holly said.

"No one will ask me, because Justin was the only one who understood me…" Amy trailed off. Holly and I grew tense, and we changed the subject rapidly.

"Did you do well on the Stat's test today?" I asked Holly quickly.

"No! I bombed it, completely!" she and I chuckled, Amy didn't make a sound.

* * *

My happy mood went spiraling downhill from there.

I felt horrible for making her remember Justin, for remembering the terror she felt that night, and the day after that, and I felt bad that I had ruined her weekend. She texted me early Saturday morning, sulking. I was listening to _Within Temptation_ when she texted. Our conversation turned into small talk, and she didn't text back after a while. I was nervous I'd said something wrong. Then a text came.

_Guess what? Nathan just asked me to Prom!_

I jumped enthusiastically on the comment.

_No way! That's awesome! You gonna go?_

She took a while to text back.

_Of course! He's been my friend in my English class the whole year, and we went to Jr. High together, and I'm like so excited! Did you get asked?_

I hit each button slowly, trying to hit each key to the beat of the music.

_You know, I don't think I'm gonna go._

She saw through my lie.

_You didn't get asked, huh?_

The truth was I hadn't. I'm not the kind of girl that guys like. I'm guys' _friend_, but I could never be more than that.

_No._

_You should still go. There'll probably be single guys there that didn't get asked._

_Okay, whatever. I'll be your driver._

_ Haha…you're going._

And that was the end of that.

Prom was a few days away, and I was dreading picking a dress. Holly sent me a picture of the dress she picked. It was a deep blue, with black and white highlights on the sleeves and on the hem. It had a full skirt with ruffles, and jewels holding the ruffles in place. Amy's dress was black and silver, with small sleeves that barely covered her shoulder. The body was slim fitting, and squeezed her figure to give her a perfect hourglass shape.

My dress was burgundy, with jeweled flowers swirling up the body, and a wide skirt stemming from my knees. The dress was comfortable, but the way the shoulders were sewn didn't give me much arm movement.

The more and more I looked into the mirror, the more and more I didn't want to go to the dance. I didn't want to stand there all night long, staring at my friends have an awesome time, and pretend that I was happy by myself. I didn't want to stand by the punchbowl, drinking my sorrows away.

I woke up a week later, on a Saturday, and looked at the dress hanging on the foot of my bed.

Today was Prom.

I didn't go to the day activities; instead, I stayed home and watched the _Indiana Jones _Trilogy, the original, not the new one with Shia LeBouf. They should have just stopped with the fourth one…

Six o'clock was approaching, so I retreated to my room, and put on my dress, flat ironed my hair, re-applied my makeup, took a picture for my parents, and then walked out the door, and getting into my car to drive to Gotham High.

The Prom was going to be held in Wayne Manor, but it burned down, and we were forced to hold it at the school. I turned on _I'd Die for You_, by Bon Jovi in the car, and sang the whole way to the school. When I got to the school, there was absolutely no place to park. So I drove around, and around until I ended up just parking in the handicap spot in front of the school.

Irritated, I slammed the door to the car, and slipped into my high heels, and walked across the bus-loading zone into the school.


	5. Party Crash

The lights were dimmed, and smooth classical music was playing. I'd walked in the middle of a slow dance. I scooted past the people and sat on the far side of the room. I looked around the crowd for my friends. I began tapping my foot rhythmically to the beat, and continued looking for my friends.

"Ditched by your date?" someone said from my right. I jumped a little bit, but I don't think the person speaking noticed.

"No, I didn't get asked. I'm just accompanying my friends." I turned to look at the person speaking.

It was Anthony. He's one of my closest friends, and a serious over-achiever. He had dark blonde hair, an awesome smile, and was one of the best debaters I'd ever known.

"That's too bad. Me neither!" we both chuckled uncomfortably. The slow song ended, and_ Melt with You_ started.

"You look beautiful." He said casually, eyeing me up and down.

"Thanks, you too." He raised his eyebrows. IDIOT! "Well, not _beautiful_, but um…good." I hit myself mentally. He laughed politely.

"Don't worry…my mom gave me the 'you're my little boy' speech before I left, and she was crying like I was moving out." We both laughed louder.

"Want some cookies?" he asked.

"Sure." I said. He left and walked around the room to get us cookies. I glanced at the decorations lining the humongous room. The vaulted ceiling was strung with hanging banners, and strung with colorful lights, giving the room an ominous glow.

"Anna!" I heard a voice yell gleefully. Holly and Ryan came jogging towards me with their hands clasped.

"Hey!" I yelled back. Holly broke free of Ryan for a moment, and gave me a hug. Ryan hit me on the shoulder. I hit him back.

"You came! I'm so happy!" she said.

"We're having so much fun!" Ryan yelled over the music.

"Good!" Anthony came trotting back with cookies and punch.

"Here." He said. We both drank silently for a second before Ryan spoke.

"You two here together?" he yelled again.

Anthony and I glanced at each other awkwardly. "No…" we both said at the same time. All four of us laughed. Amy and Nathan were soon by our side, and we were talking indistinctly as a group of six.

The dance was going on around us, and the next slow song started. They paired up with their dates, leaving Anthony and I to stare at each other.

"Wanna…?" he motioned to the dancing people on the dance floor.

"Uh, sure…Let's dance." I replied. He took my arm gently and led me to the middle of the dance floor. We assumed the position, and did the basic box step for half of the song. Then he added a twirl, and the dance became more lighthearted. We were soon laughing and dancing freely, singing along, and stumbling around the floor. The song ended Holly and Amy had all ended their duets next to us. We all smiled and laughed at each other, and smiled. We were all having the best of time!

Suddenly a loud BANG rang through the room, and people gasped and screamed. And then all was silent.

"Good evening, children!" a scratchy voice that would haunt my dreams for weeks after sounded through the ceiling, and echoed off of the walls.

"Having fun with your little _dance_?"

I peered over Anthony's shoulder, and saw him. The Clown Prince, the man who was destroying Gotham block by block…The Joker. He was holding a large gun towards the ceiling, and reached for a girl standing near, and dropped his gun, taking out a knife.

Someone screamed, making everybody jump. The Joker had her in a hold with a knife to her throat.

"Now, ya see…I'm looking for certain _in-di-vi-duals_…and if they don't come quietly, this girl…_here_…will _die._" He brandished a list from his breast pocket and read aloud:

"Holly Gatsby," Holly's body seized, and she looked on the verge of fainting.

"Nathan Ricks," Nathan's face didn't change, and he didn't move.

"Anthony Miller," his eyes scanned around the room quickly, and he didn't show any sign of moving.

"Amy Lynn," Amy let out a small gasp, which was close to not being audible.

"Ryan Thompson," his jaw tightened, as he pulled Holly closer.

"_And…_Anna Wilkinson, please come here…" No one in the entire ensemble moved.

"Ah…I can see we're going to have to send a _message._" He said. He pressed the knife harder on the girl's throat, causing her to sob once. She whimpered, and I noticed her date was being held back by thugs a few feet away, looking resigned.

Anthony pushed me farther behind his shoulder, obstructing my view of the Joker. The other dates of my friends copied his movement. We began taking tiny steps towards the back door facing the adjoining main building of the school.

"Come now…they can't _all _be sick!" the Joker yelled crazily. "Come forward!" we shuffled faster, but disappeared in the mass of people in the room. We soon reached the doors.

"We're going to have to make this quick." Anthony whispered in my ear. He put his hand on the door. I linked elbows with Amy, and she nodded at me. Holly got the message too, and we were preparing ourselves for our escape.

"All right…_fine._" The Joker hissed. "We'll just have to search _every-bo-dy._" He motioned for the thugs to look. He threw the girl back to her date, and began to search himself.

"GO!" Nathan shouted, and Anthony threw open the door. We all ran into the cold, hearts pounding, looking for the door to the main building. I looked back, and saw the Joker. He looked at me, and our eyes lingered on each other for a slow second. Then he pointed towards us.

"OVER THERE!" he shouted. There were instantly three thugs on our tail.


	6. So it Begins

I felt my heart slamming in my chest, and for a moment, everything was blurry. I felt like time was speeding by, but the doors weren't getting any closer, do you know what I mean? I realized we had reached the school, and Anthony wrenched open the doors, and shoved us all in. I heard the doors slam, and echo through the rarely-empty school. All of the girls were running at full speed, I guess the adrenaline blurred the fact that we were all wearing high-heels. We turned immediately to the left, and ran up one of the staircases.

The only sounds in the school were our hard breathing, and the clattering of the girls' high-heels, all else was silent. At the top of the stairs to the right, is an overhang balcony that is above on of the halls leading to the Drama room, and to the left is another hallway, and the library.

"Library!" I tried to alert my friends before we passed the library. "GO INTO THE LIBRARY!" They all must've heard me, because they all swerved right, into the library. I darted towards the back wall, searching frantically for something to hide me. I continued running towards the back, and I some study tabled crowded into the back. My friends dove underneath the table before I could, and I ended up taking refuge on the bottom shelf of a bookshelf, vacant of books. I had to squeeze my figure a little bit to get a somewhat comfortable fit.

I peered around the bookcase, and saw Anthony and Nathan closing the doors, and locking them. For extra measure, Nathan put a chair or two against the door handles. There were no windows leading into the library from the hall, the only windows were facing the outside courtyard of the school, so our pursuers probably wouldn't see us in here…I hoped. A few blood-chilling moments later, we heard the pounding of their footsteps coming up the stairs. We all froze.

Nathan and Anthony shoved themselves against the wall next to the door. I noticed that none of us were breathing. I could hear their muffled voices.

"Check all of these doors." One of them grunted. I shifted my crouched position on the bookcase, and my dress made an annoying _swish_ sound as the taffeta on my dress rubbed together. I froze in mid-movement.

The door across the hall rattled violently, and the footsteps were getting closer and closer. Every time a door banged against its frame, I could see everybody jump a little bit. I located a few of my friends hiding in bookcases, under tables, and one was in the librarian's office. The banging of the doors was getting closer. One of the men was muttering to himself.

And then the Library door shook violently.

_Please don't find this suspicious…_._Please…_

"This one's locked as well. Move on." The man muttered.

I felt my chest loosen. We waited for the footsteps to recede. Even after we couldn't hear them anymore, nobody moved. _I wonder why they didn't try to break in…_

Finally someone spoke.

"They're gone." It was Nathan. Immediately, people slid out of their spots.

"What do we do now?" Holly squeaked.

"Well," I started. "Should we go home?"

"It's too risky." Anthony replied. "They're probably looking for us now, and they're not just gonna give up."

"I wanna know why they even wanted us in the first place, and why was it that we were all together?" Nathan asked.

"I think us being together is a strange coincidence." I replied. "But why _did_ they want us? What could we possibly have that they could want?"

"I don't see why it matters!" Amy whispered from across the room. "All I need to know is how to get out!"

"Yeah but we can't do that at the moment!" I shouted, and I was immediately cascaded with 'Shh!' from everybody. Nathan plopped down quietly against a bookcase, and began rubbing his temples with one hand. One by one, we all sat down in various positions, next to him.

"…it's just so bizarre…I never thought I'd come to a _dance_, and end up fighting for my life." He whispered. We all sat in silence after that statement.

* * *

We attempted several times to come up with some sort of an escape plan, or formulate an escape, or something along those lines, but nothing worked. I ended up pacing the room, talking back and forth with an exasperated Anthony.

"What about cell phones? Does anyone have one?"

"The school's cell phone towers get shut off after school."

"How about a carrier pigeon? Smoke signal? Fire alarm? _Anything!_"

"Even if we did have a plan, getting out into the hall is not exactly the safest idea."

"Why don't you two get off it already?" Amy's disgruntled voice rang from the armchair in the corner.

"Well, if you want to spend the night at the school, be my guest, and _don't help_!" I shouted at Amy.

"Maybe there's nothing we can do about it!" she deflected back.

"Or _maybe_,-"

"STOP IT!" Holly interfered suddenly. "The way I see it, we're all stuck in this together, and the only way we're going to _get out_, is to help each other! AUGH!" she turned on her heel and stomped to the couch, took a blanket that was draping over it, and flung it around herself, not turning to look at us.

"She's right, Amy…I'm sorry. I just lost control." I said.

"It's okay." She said.

I walked over to the rectangle of armchairs facing the wall with the doors, and sat down next to Holly. She didn't say anything when I sat down, so I pretended to be smoothing out my skirt. Amy soon joined us, and lay down in the couch. The boys stayed in their miscellaneous positions.

"Any luck?" Holly finally spoke.

"Nope…we've thought of breaking a window and jumping, just running and taking our chances, killing the guards, get a phone and call for help, get a computer and email someone, we've thought of everything. There's a problem with each of them."

"Why can't we use the computers? There's like four of them in here."

"They're all encoded with passwords, firewalls, and encryptions. Since those kids hacked in last year, and changed their grades, the school's taking no chances. The only computers I can think of that aren't encrypted are in the Debate room, and its too risky to go into the hall."

"Why?"

"Anthony and I looked; there are guards everywhere, and they're all waiting for us."

"Augh! This is so frustrating!" Holly said.

"You said it, sister." Amy whispered. Holly hugged her knees, and rocked in the armchair. Amy stared at the wall, lying completely still; I on the other hand couldn't hold still. I got up, and wandered to the window facing the courtyard. Anthony joined my side.

"The other students fled a little while ago. There are guards by the front doors, and every door leading to the outside, as far as I can see."

"Can you see the pool doors?" He squinted his eyes, and looked to the south end of the school.

"I can't see that far."

"Oh." There was a long and awkward pause.

"So..." I began, "Do you know any of the guys here?"

"Yeah, we're acquaintances. Ryan and I go way back, and Nathan's a new addition to my friends."

"Does he go by Nate?"

"No, never!" he laughed. "It's Nathan. He comes from a proper family."

I made a face of mock surprise. "I would have had no idea!"

"Well," he cut off the chat, "I think we should wait it out. The police and SWAT should have an idea that this is a hostage situation."

"Yeah, my dad usually hears about things pretty fast."

"Really? What does he do?"

"My dad's the head of Detectives of Gotham. He's been there _forever_."

"Seriously? My dad's with the police too! He's a lieutenant!"

"No way! I wonder if he works with my dad." I said.

"I don't think he does…my dad's with the police, yours is with the detectives."

"Oh, yeah…" we both sat and looked out the windows for several minutes, before I pieced it all together. I gasped loudly, and his face was one of alarm.

"What?" he said intensely.

"I think I know why he wants us!" I squeaked. He turned to face me completely.

"Tell me."

"Holly's dad's my dad's boss! He's the Chief of Police! And-and, Amy's dad works for Holly's dad, because he's a Sergeant!"

"And I know that Nathan's dad is a SWAT team officer-"

"That means that Ryan's dad's got to be with the law too! RYAN!" Ryan looked up from a book he was browsing through.

"What?"

"What does your dad do?!" He looked a little frightened.

"He's a Police officer."

"See?!" I shouted at Anthony. Everyone was looking at me now.

"Why are you shouting?!" Holly whispered harshly.

"I know why they want the six of us!"

"Tell! Tell!" Amy shrieked.

"Our dad's all have connections with the law! You know, like Holly and Amy's dad, and the rest of ours-!"

"Of course!" Ryan shouted. "We're not the _real_ targets, our parents are!" Everyone broke into their own conversations, and the room was filled with a low buzz.

"I'm gonna go to sleep, I'm exhausted." Really, I was. I was almost so happy to function, but then I remembered our situation, and my mood went through the floor again. I wandered away from the group, and grabbed a blanket from one of the chairs. Amy wandered next to me, and lay down too.

"You're smart…I'm glad that you're my friend." She whispered.

"Thanks. I just hope we'll all be okay." I glanced at the clock on the wall; it was nearing 1:00 AM. The boys were very respectful, because they drug the couches and chairs to the back of the library, so we could have some privacy. The boys went back to the spot where the chairs were, and they laid on the rug, with no blankets or anything. The three of us split one big blanket between all of the pieces of furniture.

I got to sleep quickly, but not before horrible dreams attacked my slumber.


	7. Ambush

I'd been staring at the ceiling for about three hours now.

I had counted the ceiling tiles three or four times, counted the seconds tick by, counted books on shelves, I'd counted just about everything. I was just so _bored._ I would've got up and walked around, but I didn't want to risk the material on my dress waking everybody, and I was just too lazy to get out of the warm blanket.

Amy kept turning in her sleep; Holly hadn't moved at all. I heard an exhale from the boys' side of the room, and then all was quiet again. I turned my head, and looked at another side of the room, looking for things to count. My eyes wandered aimlessly around the room, glancing at miscellaneous things. The blanket slid off of me slightly as Amy rolled over again. The blanket slid all of the way off of the slick taffeta on my dress, and I decided to stand up since I'd lost my warm shelter.

The first thing I noticed was that my legs were very sweaty, and the netting on the inside of my dress was irritating them quite a bit. I lifted my dress as high as I could off the ground, trying not to make a sound. It reduced the noise quite a bit, but it still made a gentle _swish, swish_. I gave up on silencing the sound, and just walked across the room to a small table in the resource books' corner.

I was too lazy to pull out a chair, so I lay down on top of the table, facing the large windows that lined the whole wall. The windows faced the west, opposite from the lunchroom. I faced the lights of the city, and my eyes lingered on Wayne Enterprises. Most people's did. It was one of the tallest buildings in Gotham, and if you didn't catch the height, then you'd catch the large letters spelling out WAYNE on both sides of the building.

I put my arm underneath my head, and stared into the polluted city. I couldn't help but feel sour towards the civilians of Gotham.

_They have no idea what's happening up here. Or do they? I don't even know. Is my dad coming? What about the Batman? _Pfft…_these sorts of affairs aren't important enough for the Batman to show up. But the Joker's involved…will he come? I hope he does. I've always wanted to meet him. My dad talks about him a lot. The Police have been searching for him, but my dad 'snubs' that part of his job; he believes in the Batman. My family all idolizes him. Will I see my dad again? Ever?_

* * *

I awoke with a start when my head rolled off of my arm. I sat up quickly, and the edges of my vision went blurry. I looked around quickly, taking in my surroundings.

_I must've fallen asleep._

"Anna? Are you okay?" someone whispered. I glanced around the dark room.

"…yeah. Where are you?" I outstretched my hands, searching for something to grab.

"Over here." The voice was getting closer. It was a short distance from me. I groped with my hands further and further, pushing my luck with falling off of the table, when my hands met someone else's.

"Here you are." It was a boy speaking.

"Who is this?" I said.

"It's me, Anthony." _Anthony…_

"Why are you up?"

"Nathan and I got hungry. I'm surprised our stomachs didn't wake the rest of the room." He chuckled.

"Oh, right…we need food." Right after he said that, my stomach gave a large growl. We both laughed. I heard someone stirring from the other side of the room.

"Wanna be quiet over there? Some of us actually need _sleep._" That was Amy, I could tell.

"Sorry." I said. She grunted and rolled over, going back to sleep.

"What _are_ we going to do for food?" he asked.

"I don't know. The kitchen's food is all frozen, it would take us a little while to heat it up enough to become edible, and it's too risky to stay there for that long.

"I agree. Wait…" he sat there in silence for a moment, thinking. "The Debate room has food."

"Really? Where?"

"In the cupboards in the computer lab, the entire team keeps loaves of bread and stuff in there because half of them have lunch in there everyday."

"Great! But how do we get in there?"

"Um….I guess we'll just have to risk going into the hall. I heard a few thugs wander down the hall in the middle of the night." I walked over to the window. The thugs were still guarding the main doors, and every door to the outside that I could see.

"Okay, let's try it."

"I'll go wake them." He said. I slid off of the table, and onto my feet. I could hear Anthony walking away from me, towards the boys' side of the room.

"Come on guys, get up. We're going to get food."

"…food…sweet…" one of them yawned. I walked over blindly to the girls' side.

"Having fun flirting with Anthony?" Amy said. I jumped.

"I thought you were asleep." I said.

"Not quite, I heard everything you said, and it sounds like you like him."

"Shut it Amy, the last thing I'm thinking about now is flirting."

"Still…"

"Holly…get up. We're going to get food." I leaned down and shook her shoulder. She stirred slowly.

"Good." She yawned and stretched. "I'm hungry. What are we going to eat?"

"Lunch food, Anthony says there's some in the Debate room."

Suddenly, shattering the quiet, the Library doors burst open, and the room was filled with shouts.

"Get them! Make sure they don't escape!" Amy screamed, and I heard chairs clattering. Flashlights flicked on, and beams of light cascaded the room, twisting around the room. It sounds like an army entered the room.

I heard a grunt, and a 'let go!' from the girls' side of the room. A beam of light illuminated a clown holding Holly by both arms, and then the beam shifted positions, and I couldn't see her anymore. The beams continued to fly around the room, reminding me of a decorative light at the dance earlier in the evening.

"Aah! Help!" I heard Holly scream, and a 'shut up!' from the clown holding her. I turned and ran in the semi-dark room towards the outline of a massive shape. The shape turned out to be a bookcase, and I ducked behind it. I listened in horror at the sounds of all of my friends being apprehended.

"Get the tape!" I heard a man shout. Amy screamed again, and I heard objects being slid across the room.

"I've got two!" a voice came from across the room.

"I don't got any! There are four more out there!" the other man shouted. I heard tape being pulled off of its roll, and wrapped around a chair. Amy's wails were muffled, and I guessed that she was tied up. The lights in the room suddenly flipped on, and my eyes burned with the sudden light change. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to adapt to the brightness, when someone grabbed my hair, and pulled it violently upwards. I let out a shriek, and felt my body leave the floor.

"Got another one! That makes all of the girls!" the man shouted. I looked around and saw two clowns. _Only two? We can take them!_ I glanced around frantically for the boys. I couldn't see any of them. The clowns had flashlights taped to their handguns, and the one holding me was pushing it threateningly against my neck. I didn't resist at all, but instead focused my energy on looking for the boys.

"You gonna tell us where the rest of your friends are missy?" the clown grunted. I flailed once, not making a sound. He pushed the gun harder into my neck, causing me to gasp out as it closed off my air-pipe momentarily.

"Fine…we'll just put you with the rest of your wimpy friends." He cackled, and threw me forcefully into a chair, my jaw slammed into the back of the chair, and I felt my teeth jar into one another. I reached my hand instinctively towards my jaw, but it was yanked away, and the clown threw my arm around the back of the chair, turning my whole body around with my arm. I screamed in pain. I caught Amy tied to a chair with my peripheral vision, and Holly lying by the leg of the table near me, clutching her arm that was bleeding from a large gash on her upper arm.

"Now," the clown sneered, while he tied me to the chair. "Are you gonna tell me where the rest of your stupid friends are?" I looked up at him without moving my head, and shook my head slowly, letting my chin bob onto my chest. He sighed, and I saw his arm gesture to the other clown. He began wandering around the room, throwing tables and chairs violently, causing us all to jump whenever they hit the floor.

"Tell me…and I won't kill your friend." He gestured with his gun to Amy, whose eyeliner was running down her cheeks from the tears.

"I-" I was cut off by a punch to the gut. I tried to double over, but the duct tape was very restricting in my movements. I moaned, and whimpered once, but my hate was building inside of me very quickly. The clown spoke from across the room.

"Any word on the Police?"

"Shut up you idiot! I don't want them knowing anything!" the armed clown shouted back.

"Just tell me! Who're they gonna tell?" the unarmed clown said back.

"No word! As far as I'm concerned they're not even notified!"

"I wouldn't say that. If they hadn't been notified, then why is the boss plotting all of this stuff?" _What stuff?_

"That's enough!" the armed clown shouted. He nudged me with his outstretched gun. "Found any of them?" he demanded.

"Not yet. You sure they're here?"

"Positive nit-wit. If they were smart, they'd stick together." he turned back to me. I looked at his eyes showing through the mask.

"Tell me where they are."

"I don't know." I squeaked. He hit me on the side of the head with the handle of his gun. Amy shouted from behind the tape.

"Don't make me kill you! _Where are they_?"

"I don't know! Don't hurt her!" Amy's fate kept flashing through my mind, and my fear was disappearing and being replaced with hatred. This next blow to the head made my vision go blurry for a moment.

I waited for the fuzziness to disappear before looking back at him. I felt tears jerk my eyes. He grabbed my hair, and forced my face to be a few inches from his. I smelled his rank breath. His voice was a deadly whisper.

"You know, I won't actually kill you…but I'll do the next worst thing…like, I don't know…rape you and your friend." _No…_

"Okay! Okay…." I gasped quickly. "I'll tell you…" He released my hair, and backed away a little bit, pointing the gun back at my forehead. I saw Nathan and Anthony rise slowly from the bookcases, and sneaking quickly, but quietly towards my captor. From a distance, I saw Ryan preparing to ambush the unarmed clown.

"They're….they're…"I was trying to delay as long as possible.

"Spit it out!" he yelled. Suddenly, he fell backwards, and the gun went off. I screamed in alarm, and watched in horror as the boys struggled on the floor. Nathan grabbed at the gun, and wrestled for several long seconds, before the man gave in, and the gun fell out of his hand. Anthony and Nathan jumped up away from the man, and Nathan turned the gun on the man. He pulled the trigger, and a single shot rang out, going through the man's head, and killing him instantly. I closed my eyes, and heard Amy whimper.

"Hurry! Over here!" Ryan shouted from a few bookcases away. The boys ran over, and another shot rang out. There was a chilling silence. I felt the tape loosen from my arms, and Amy's tape was pulled from her mouth. She began to cry, and Nathan embraced her in his arms, allowing her to sob into his shoulder. Anthony leaned down and began to examine Holly. The floor was stained with blood.

"Shh…it's okay…" Nathan whispered to Amy. I sat in the chair, unmoving. I looked over and saw Ryan limping towards us.

"The guy had a gun…but it wasn't a normal gun…" he gasped. I looked down at his leg, and saw the blood trickling down.

"What was it?"

"I think it was filled with poison or something," he pulled up his pant leg, and opened the wound a little further. Green puss came out.

"Ugh…" I groaned, and I felt my stomach heave.

"We've got to leave." Anthony said. "If those two found us, there's bound to be others." He ran over and grabbed a first-aid kit hanging on the wall, and got some gauze to wrap around Holly's arm.

"Ryan's been poisoned!" I shouted. Anthony's head snapped up.

"I'll be there in a second." Nathan told Ryan to sit down.

"Ew…it's oozing whatever it is." I sat in stunned silence, trying to get my heart to slow down. _Why was this happening? What was seeping from Nathan__'s leg? Who else will be injured or die before this is over?_


	8. The Debate Room and Milk

**A/N: ARGH! I have no idea how, but the second half of this chapter is MISSING! Unfortunately, I am unable to get the original document from the external hard-drive that it is on at ehe moment! I'm sorry to new readers who have no idea what they've missed. In the mean time...*sigh* I'll do my best to relocate it.**

"Hurry! We haven't got much time!" I whispered harshly to the others.

"I'm just about done with her arm." Anthony said. Ryan jogged over to the doors to the hall, and peeked out.

"Still clear." He said.

"Someone's bound to have heard the gunshots." Nathan said.

"Let's go! Come on!" Amy whined from the corner of the room. She cantered over to the library doors, standing right next to Ryan.

"Done, come on." Anthony extended his arm, and grabbed Holly's good arm. He hoisted her up onto her feet. She winced and yelped out loud when she reached up to touch it.

"Careful now…its subject to serious infection. Try not to touch it." He said.

"Okay." She whispered back. Silently, but quickly, we all rushed over to the doors. Ryan checked the hallway one more time before giving us the 'go ahead.' We rushed into the hall furiously.

I mouthed a, 'this way!', since none of them knew where the Debate room was. We headed left from the Library, and down a small hallway. The Debate room was the second one on the left. Nathan held open the door, and we all ran inside.

On my way into the room, I grabbed the door handle to the lab right next to the doorframe. I have it a tug; it was locked.

"Guys! The room's locked! The food's in there!" Anthony came over, and gave it a forceful tug.

"Try the teacher's desk, see if there's a screwdriver in there." He said. He and I ran over to the desk, and began rummaging through the drawers, rather violently. Amy and Holly were now sitting on desks, watching our progress. Nathan was patrolling the hallway, and Ryan was sitting on the floor next to Holly's desk. He was rubbing her barefoot with his index finger absentmindedly.

"Here!" Anthony said. "Screwdriver." He trotted over to the doorknob, and began to unscrew the entire handle. The screws fell out with little _ting_'s, and the whole knob came off soon after. He reached into the little hole, and clicked the lock back. We ran inside and began rummaging through the cupboards.

"Ah! Here's some bread!" I gasped. I threw a loaf and a half to him, and he caught them agilely. I also found some peanut butter, and some plastic knives. There was some sprinkles too, but I didn't feel the need for peanut butter and sprinkle sandwiches.

We brought the food out to the rest of the group, and we were greeted by the sounds of grateful groans.

"Finally!" Amy rasped. The sandwiches were assembled quickly, and the bread was gone before we all knew it.

"Now, what are we going to do about this?" Ryan gestured to his leg.

"Well…I don't really know." Nathan answered plainly. "It's not hurting you, is it?"

"Not right now, but it looks really ugly."

"What is it, you think?" Holly asked.

"I don't really know…but it smells weird." Nathan chuckled.

"And you would know this because…?" I asked.

"Don't ask." Amy said from across the room. She resorted to drawing on the whiteboard for entertainment.

"You wouldn't happen to have a knife, would you?" I asked Anthony. He was staring at a picture on the wall next to the teachers' desk.

"Hmm? Oh, no, sorry."

"It's okay."

"I have one though." Ryan replied. He brandished it from his pants pocket, and tossed it lightly to me.

"Thanks." Without another word, I began to cut the scratchy material on the inside of my dress out.

"I'm next!" Holly said.

"Keep your voices down." Nathan chimed in.

"How's it look?" Anthony asked.

"Well…" Nathan paused, walking to the door once again. "Clear, for now. But I have been watching classroom lights go on and off. But no one's walked past."

The security lights in the school were just bright enough, that I could see my reflection in the metal bars that held the desks together. I looked like a wreck!

I glanced at the clock. It was about two thirty AM. I laughed internally. _I'd never been at the school this late…_

Suddenly, the security lights went out, leaving us in the smoldering darkness. Amy whimpered, Holly gasped, and Nathan gave a small sound of surprise.

"Great…" Anthony said at full volume.

"Shh!" someone whispered from across the room.

**A/N: Grr! I got to my hard-drive, and the file is saved exactly as you see it here. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? The second half of this chapter is very hard to duplicate and/or recreate! ARGH! *exhaggerated sigh***

**Well...here's the fill-in. :(**

**With a stealthy trip to the Library, Anna and Nathan research the poison, and find out that it is a particular and rare sort of snake venom, that paralyzes the body after a certain amount of time, and turns deadly after four hours. The only known 'cure' is whole milk. They draw the conclusion that they need to go to the kitchens (without getting caught) and get milk for Ryan before he loses his leg.  
**


	9. Dash for Ryan

I was beginning to become less scared of the hallways. Since nothing seemed to be happening when we went outside, the fear had just kind of extinguished itself.

But this was extremely foolish.

I knew I should be on my guard at all times, but I was beginning to get tired of the entire situation. I knew that only a disaster would wake me up from my ignorance. But I still couldn't help but be lax about the fate of my friends.

_Who am I kidding?_ They're my life…

These thoughts nagged me the entire way down the hall. And once or twice, I grunted quietly to get them to shut up. We reached the stairs, and one by one, we all treaded lightly down the metal stairs. Once we reached the bottom, we took off into a run towards the kitchens.

The kitchens are at the far end of the cafeteria, across the wide open commons area, and face the east side of Gotham. The commons was going to be the worst part. We were in the wide open. There's nothing to hide behind, and nothing to defend ourselves with if we were found. The boys knew that too, because I saw them slow down, and search for another way around the commons.

But there was no way in getting around it. The only other way was to go back up the stairs and around in the hallways, and I didn't want to risk that at all. In all seriousness, I'd much rather roam around in the hallways, but the journey would be longer, and provide more time for the clowns to find us.

But were there more clowns?

_Shut up…shut up!_ I kept yelling at my too-logical mind. Being in an illogical mindset felt much more secure right now. I saw Nathan motion with large arms, trying to get our attention. He walked closer to me, and Anthony followed him. We got into a small huddle. He whispered his idea.

"We'll go one by one, and stick close to the walls." He said barely below a whisper. We both nodded. He turned around, and went first.

He was very agile, and quick with his movements. The only set back was the sound that his baggy sleeves on his dress shirt made when it flapped against his skin. He made it to the cafeteria very quickly, and ducked behind one of the large trash cans. He signaled for one of us to go next. Anthony put his hand on my back and gave me a little shove. I stumbled, but caught my weight, and used the momentum to move across the floor. I felt the air rush past my face as I flew across the carpeted floor. I tripped on my dress once, but saved myself, and kept running. I arrived at the trash cans faster than Nathan did, and followed his example by ducking next to him. I peered around the can to watch Anthony's progress.

He ran a little slower than I did, but he was definitely more in control than I was.

He arrived safely at the cans with us. And then we moved from one table to the next and to the next, until we'd made our way to the kitchens. But there was one thing we all forgot about…

"I totally forgot about the gate." Nathan whispered. There was a large metal gate with long rods running across it that looked very similar to a portcullis blocking our way into the kitchen. This gate was often used during lockdowns, and fire drills.

"Do they usually close the kitchens?" I asked.

"Usually…but I wouldn't think they would during a dance with food." Nathan replied. Anthony was staring curiously at the gate, raking his eyes up and down the gate, looking for a weakness.

"Look! There's a gap at the top!" Anthony hissed. We all craned our necks and looked upwards.

"It doesn't look big enough for any of us to fit through." I said.

"Actually, I think you'll just fit." Anthony said. I looked at him incredulously.

"You can't be serious…" he didn't blink as I looked at him. He _was _serious…I exhaled out loud, and then looked at the task before me.

"Well…can you at least spot me in case I fall?" I said.

"Sure." They said in unison. I turned around and faced the gate. I grasped one of the bars, and put my foot on another one, and hoisted myself up one foot.

_Okay…okay, okay, okay…_I whispered to myself. I'd totally forgotten that I was afraid of climbing unstable objects. I drew myself very close to the gate, and stopped moving. The gate swayed, but the momentum shortly died, and it was still again.

"Anna?" Someone called from below. I didn't turn around. "Are you okay?"

I took a deep breath before choking a reply. "Yeah, fine." I looked up, and tried the 'don't look down' technique. It helped a little bit, but not enough to get me to climb any faster. I lifted my foot a little higher, and put my other foot where the other one had been.

"Good job, Anna…you're getting there…" one of them said. I kept my head on my target, and I didn't even look at my hands or feet. _Was that sarcasm? _When that technique didn't work, I decided to stare at my hands, nothing else. I just stared at them, not even checking or watching them, just staring.

_Just get there...Just get there. Don't die…_SHUT UP! I yelled subconsciously. _If you keep thinking these thoughts, you'll doom us all, got it? You supercilious, stupid-_

My thoughts were cut off by a loud and painful bang. I'd reached the top, and hit my head on the metal grate that held the gate when it was open. I rubbed the top, and I heard a snicker from below. I figured that I'd continued to climb while I was yelling at myself, and didn't look up to check how close I was getting.

"Shut up, man." I heard someone whisper, and then I heard a muffled hit. The snickers continued, and then died out quickly.

"…Ow…" I muttered to myself. I could feel the bump rising on my head.

"You okay?" Anthony said…I think.

"Yeah…just got a nice little bump now." He chuckled.

"Can you fit?" I looked up and put my whole arm, into the hole. I mentally calculated my body side compared to my arm. I twisted my lips a few times, before turning back to Anthony.

"It'll be a tight fit-!"I gasped as I lost one of my footings. Both boys' threw their hands up ready to catch me, but my one hand and one foot didn't fail me. I began to hyperventilate, and I brought my arm out of the hole, and used it to hold onto the gate. I pressed my body up against the gate, praying that I wouldn't fall. My hands and feet were sweating profusely, and the gate was becoming more and more slippery by the second.

"You've got to move!" Nathan said.

"I'm trying!" I said back without looking at him. The gate shook more and more, and it took me a second to realize…it was my body shaking that was causing it to be unstable. So I closed my eyes, and tried to concentrate on not shaking. I opened my eyes slowly, and raised my body up again, and put my arm through the hole. I raised my body slowly, and rolled it onto its side. I was hoping to slide through horizontally, and then swing back vertical, and climb down.

But this was easier said than done.

My dress restricted my leg space significantly, and my hands were sweating so much, that they gave me no reassurance holding on to metal bars. The only thing that motivated me to keep moving was the fact that Holly's boyfriend was in severe pain, and probably going to have to amputate his leg if he wasn't murdered first by the Joker. _But what if they've already been captured? What if they're already dead? Are there even more clowns? _SHUT UP!

While I was yelling at myself, I zoned out again. I let my foot slip, and I let out a cry of surprise. I was immediately bombarded with two 'Shh!'s. I'd gone out the other side, and was hanging by one arm. My shoulder screamed in pain.

"Hurry!" Anthony spewed. I looked at the remaining distance to the ground, and decided to chance it. I let go with my one hand, and let myself fall. I hit the ground with a soft, _pat_ of my bare feet, and I looked frantically around for the button to open the gate.

I found it on the far side of the wall right next to the humongous freezer. I jumped over the serving counter, and pressed my whole hand over it.

We all jumped in surprise and horror as the loudest buzzing emitted from the gate. I threw my hand off of the button, and ducked as a reflex. I looked through the gate at the two. Their expressions were of total horror. I jumped over the counter again, and ran over to the gate.

"What should we do?" I whispered.

"Just do it fast, but don't lift it up all of the way. We'll just slide under." Nathan said back. I nodded furiously for an okay, and ran back over to the button. My underarms were really getting sweaty, and my dress was absorbing it all, staining it furiously. But I didn't care…too much.

I put my hand on the button, readying myself. I pushed it with my whole hand again, and the buzzing began instantaneously. My heart leapt in anxiety. This time, as soon as it was one foot off of the ground, they flung themselves underneath it, and they rolled until they cleared the gate. I let my hand off of the button, and the buzzing stopped. I let off a sigh of relief as the boys picked themselves up and dusted themselves off.

"Come on, let's find some milk." Nathan said. I'm sure it was supposed to be humorous, but none of us were in the comical mood. We all rushed over the counters, and into the back of the kitchens, where no students are allowed.

"Wow, look at all of the re-heaters. It's disgusting." Nathan said. "They just re-heat all of our food!" Anthony chuckled once, and I just rolled my eyes. We wound through the confusing tile-encrusted corridors, and the doorframes, until we eventually became very, and hopelessly lost.

"I swear we came from this direction." I said, pointing to a doorframe to our right.

"I think I remember seeing this tile before…" Nathan said, squinting his eyes at the tile, and putting his hand on his chin in a mock detective look. I punched his arm.

"Would you be _serious?_!"

"Sorry…but I really think I've seen this one before." I decided to retain my silence. We looked around for a few more agonizingly pointless minutes, before some relief came.

"I found it!" Anthony said from a few doorframes away.

"Did you find the whole milk?" I asked as I made my way to him.

"Yeah! It's all here!" he said. I made it to him, and he opened the gigantic refrigerator to reveal an entire wall of different colored cartons of milk. I rubbed my hands together.

"Yes!" we began taking boxes and boxes of milk down, looking for the whole milk.

"Skim, 2%, 1%, Soy, Goat's, goodness, you have enough milk here? Here we go!" Anthony smiled as he lifted up a small red carton, and tossing it to me.

"Great! Find a few more. In fact…bring ten. Everyone will want some milk, I think." I said.

"Okay." He replied. He tossed the milk to me one at a time, and then helped me carry them out of the maze. We met up with Nathan a few minutes later, laying in the middle of the floor by the door to the outside commons.

"Finally! I was wondering when you'd find me." He said. We stared at him incredulously.

"Why are you on the floor?" I asked in an exasperated tone.

"My mother always told me, when you're lost, or when you lose your group, to always stay where you are." He puckered his lips in a childlike way, and folded his arms.

"Wow….you really are a child." Anthony laughed. Nathan sat up against the wall, and while he was shifting his position, Anthony tossed him two cartons of milk. Nathan jumped, and caught them clumsily.

"Help us carry these up." He said.

"Fine…" Nathan said in a very annoying childish voice. I laughed, and Anthony rolled his eyes. We all took turns jumping over the counter, and squeezing under the open gate. We decided to leave it open, there's no use making a loud noise again.

"Let's hurry, I didn't keep very good track of the time. How long has it been?" I asked.

"I have no idea, but we'd better hurry nonetheless." Anthony answered.

Suddenly, we heard the most horrifying, sickening sound. A shriek, clear as a bell, coming from the upper level. It was followed by loud banging, and then a full scream, and then all fell silent.

"RUN!" I yelled, not caring about being quiet anymore. We all rocketed across the commons and up the stairs. I don't think I've ever prayed harder in my entire life.

I knew that deep down that if something happened to them, it would be completely and entirely my fault.


	10. Captured

_I could hear my heart pounding in my ears._

_I could feel the blood rocketing through my veins,_

_And I could feel the premature devastation, and I could see the images of one of my friends lying dead in the middle of the Debate room floor, and the others were on their way to being murdered…_

We were silent as we flew up the stairs towards the Debate room. Anthony took the lead, me in second, and Riley took up the rear. We rounded the top of the stairs, and turned to go into the hallway. I could feel my eyes beginning to water, probably ruining my eyeliner, and the last of my hair clips that hadn't fallen out, were now becoming disconnected, and jabbing into my neck as my hair swung around behind me. We couldn't seem to get there fast enough.

The door was in sight, before I knew it; we were bursting through the door.

The scene I saw would be burned into my memory forever.

Six clowns were restraining Amy, Holly, and Ryan. Ryan had one on each arm, and was still bucking and resisting furiously; Holly was lying on the ground with one clown's hand wrapped in her hair. Amy had one clown holding both of her arms behind her back with one of his hands, and with the other hand, he was taking out his gun in preparation to point it at her. The other two were pointing guns at the three of them haphazardly, trying to keep the three of them in order.

"AUGH!" I yelled, half out of rage, half out of horror. The three of us drew closer together, and none of us made a move as six guns suddenly pointed in our direction. We were smart enough to figure out that attacking six armed clowns was not the brightest idea. The boys suddenly disappeared from behind me, as they were both wrestled to the ground by the other two clowns. I couldn't see where they came from, nor did I care. _They're so fast!_ I prepared myself for attack, but no clown came to grab me. I reached over to a clown to try and get his grab off of Anthony, but he elbowed me with such force, that I flew onto the ground. The struggle was broken by a small chuckle from a dark corner of the room; I heard a voice that would haunt me for the rest of my life. It was smooth, yet rough like the wild ocean, crisp and clear, yet warbled, and unstable.

"Now, don't _shoot_ them…I just wanna…see how they'll…_react_." I felt my heart skip a beat. It was the same voice that attacked the Prom, and the same voice I've been hearing in all of the hostage tapes sent into GCN, threatening to kill the Batman, and cause Anarchy throughout Gotham…it was the Joker.

Slowly, his foot arose from the darkness of the corner, then his leg, and then the green of his vest shone brightly against the dull atmosphere around us. Soon, I saw his luminescent white paint glow as he completely stepped into the dull light around us. His eyes were like two black holes, staring back at me, and I could feel them raking up and down my body. I stepped backwards once more, skeptical and afraid of what he was going to do. As I took a step backwards, he took one forward at the same exact time. I leaned slightly to the side, and he mirrored my movement.

_Is he mocking me?_

I then stumbled backwards on my dress as I tried to take one more step backwards, and I rammed right into a bookshelf. I closed my eyes in a silent cry of pain, and as soon as I opened them to look back at this bizarre man, he was one foot in front of me, with his face leaning in towards mine. I wanted to yelp in fear, but the sound was caught in my throat.

"Now, don't be afraid of little old _me_. _That's_ not what you should be _afraid_ of." He emphasized certain words, making his words more meaningful and frightening. He reminded me of a young child who was trying to speak outside of their vocabulary in order to impress an adult, but this child knew exactly what he was talking about, and how to say things in a certain way to make someone quiver with fear.

He smelled of something putrid, like week-old coffee, or like he'd fallen into a septic tank. But he also smelled sweet, but not like candy-sugar sweet, but almost like a sweet that was so sweet that it tickled your nose, and made you want to sneeze. Almost like marijuana, and the intoxication level was about the same as marijuana too.

He leaned closer to me, and I put one of my hands on his vest, trying to push him away, or at least, create a little bit of space between us, and my other hand found one of the shelves behind me. He licked his lips once…twice…and three times before speaking again. He brushed his filthy, half-dyed hair out of his eyes, and then put his hand in his pocket.

"Ya know…I could've easily killed one of you the entire time you were-ah…_sneaking down there_." He motioned lazily with his free hand towards the Commons. I tried to keep my eyes from widening, but he was probably used to the signs of fear; my pupils, I'm sure, had already dilated, showing I was afraid.

"You mean you-" I started, but he cut me off.

"Yeah, I knew it was you. I've been watching you all _ev-en-ing_. He separated his words, tapping my shoulder with his hand every time he broke a syllable. He took his other hand out of his coat pocket, and clicked open a knife. I tried to shrink back, but the knife was too quick. He had it underneath my chin in less than a heartbeat.

"You could make this easier for _every-one_ if you would just, no-t," he popped his 't', "struggle. You see, I don't think any of their parents," he motioned to them with his head, "Would like to see the body of their beloved teenager on the evening news. And _believe _me…that can be so easily arranged." He closed his eyes slowly and wetted the corners of his mouth with his tongue. While his eyes were closed, I had a chance to study his face without being entrapped by his eyes. I could see all of the irregularities in his paint. The lines, the smudges, the missed spots, but I could also see the outlines of his scars so perfectly, they didn't look like accidents, but rather, perfectly sculpted works. He opened his eyes quickly, and my eyes flashed to his. He leaned away from me, but still had the knife to my chin. He lifted his head, giving me a skeptical look that rolled off of his nose and chin.

"What do you want from me?" I whispered. I clutched one of the shelves behind me tighter, as the sweat from my hands was making it harder to hold onto. My other hand was still on his vest.

"Oh, nothing…just listen to my every _word_ and _command_. You can choose to obey them if you'd like, but just _know_, that if you choose no-t to…you're putting you and your friends in, ah, danger." He paused and sucked a breath through his teeth.

"So," I prayed that now was the right moment to speak. "What do you want me to do right _now?_" I emphasized the 'now' because I was sick of playing his little theatrical waiting games. He narrowed his eyes and looked me straight in the eyes. Then he leaned his head back towards my face. I shrunk towards the floor. He removed the knife from my chin and just held it between two of his gloved fingers. I diverted my eyes from his…he was just so _close_…

"Hey." He said, tapping my cheek lightly. "Look at me." He smacked his lips once, and I kept my eyes on the floor. "_Look _at me!" He grabbed my chin roughly, and forced it upwards until our eyes met. I felt tears prick my eyes, and I was trying my best to not let them spill over. Nothing would be more embarrassing than crying in front of the Joker. I didn't want him to have the satisfaction.

He motioned with his knife hand, and did the little 'naughty' sign with the index finger. "Wha-t, did we just talk about? Listening to _every command?!_" His voice was suddenly harsh and demonic, and I heard a sob escape from my mouth. I heard a rustle on the far side of the room, and then a grunt. I'm sure nobody could see me, because the Joker had broad enough shoulders, and a tall enough figure that he eclipsed me completely.

"Sorry." I muttered through my tears. They had begun to spill over, and I could feel one of them slowly trickling down my cheek and towards my chin. I decided to concentrate on the color of his eyes to try and take off some of the intensity of the situation. His eyes were a gorgeous chocolate-brown with a dull hint of mud. They didn't sparkle, which added to the fierceness of his entire persona. My focus was suddenly forced out of his eyes when I felt a hand on my hips, feeling up my side, slightly brushing one of my breasts. I closed my eyes, wishing it would end. I heard him give a sound of approval.

"Hmm…If I get bored, you and I could have a little bit of _fun._" He sucked his teeth again. "Oh yeah…_fun…_" They way he paused scared me. His hand disappeared off of my side, and I could hear the sound of someone moving. I felt the heat of his body disappear, and when I opened my eyes, he was walking away from me, and towards Ryan. I put my hands by my mouth as a reflex, and edged a little bit forward to see what he was going to do.

"Say there," he started. "Seems that you got hit by one of my guys' guns." Ryan grimaced as the Joker leaned down to touch his leg. The Joker suddenly put his hand in his coat, making Ryan jump in surprise, and withdrew a small bottle and a syringe. He put the syringe in the bottle, and pulled the top of the syringe up, causing it to fill with the substance inside of the jar.

"Anti-venin." I said across the room. The Joker paused and looked at me over his shoulder. Then he returned to what he was doing.

"Smart thinking." He popped the't' again. "You probably figured that I don't want you children dead…yet." We were all quiet apart from an occasional whimper from one of the girls as he injected the needle into Ryan's leg. Ryan let out a quiet cry of pain, and he began breathing quickly. Then he closed his eyes, and fell into unconsciousness.

"What-?" I cut off my sentence when the Joker spun around to look at me. I stepped back into the bookcase again. He walked towards me, breathing in rhythm with his steps. When he arrived at me, I diverted my eyes to the floor once more. I couldn't bring myself to look at him.

He patted my cheek again, but harder this time. "Naughty." Is all that he said. "To the holding room." The room was alive in seconds, and he strode away from me quickly, leaving the room. I clutched my heart, and fell to my knees. I didn't get to rest on them long, before I was hoisted to my feet, and forced out of the Debate room.


	11. Advancing

I was working desperately in my mind trying to formulate an escape. But this was easier said than done, especially when the clown behind me jabbed me in the back every few minutes with the point of his gun, and distracted me long enough to forget my train of thought. _Or was that the idea?_ The only sounds in the hallway were the girls gasping and panting, an occasional grunt from a boy trying to loosen his restraint, or the small shriek as one of us stumbled.

All of these noises were accompanied by a painful _thump_ to our backs. After numerous agonizing minutes of stumbling through the darkened hallway, we'd all gotten so tired, that we'd lost track of where we were in the school. We came to a small room next to the gymnasium and pool, labeled: _Athletic Storage_. The clown at the front flung open the doors, and shoved us all inside.

There was absolutely nothing in the large closet. Nothing on the shelves, hanging on the hooks, or even crumpled up on the floor, which surprised me because Gotham High has one of the largest sports programs in the country. I watched Amy and Holly fall onto the floor in front of me, and then I felt my own weight fly forward as I was shoved into the closet. I almost landed on top of Holly, but she rolled over before we collided. The boys fell into crumpled forms on all sides of me. The clowns began chuckling, and one was laughing above the rest.

"Nice to see _you_ again." He said. He kicked Amy as he said that. She gave a small cry of pain as she rolled onto her side. Then they left without another word. The doors slammed closed, and made my heart jump. Then the lock clicked on the other side. I let myself lower completely onto the cold stone floor, and I closed my eyes, trying to hide the oncoming tears. Next to me, I could hear Holly sobbing quietly. I raised my hand and patted her shoulder.

"Shh…" I tried to comfort her, but she sobbed harder as soon as I whispered those words.

"I ha-hate this! I wanna g-g-g-go home!" she sobbed.

"We all do. And we're going to get out of this together." I said back. I know it wasn't comforting, but it was the truth.

"You're right." Anthony jumped in. "And we'd better start by getting out of here." He jumped to his feet and brushed himself off. Then he walked over to the door, and examined all of the hinges on the edges of the doors. He ran his fingers across it, tapped it once or twice, and then used two fingers to pull on the tops of them.

"If you don't mind me asking, _what are you doing?_" Ryan demanded. I could hear in his voice, that he was losing his patience.

"Checking for weak points." Anthony replied.

"…_why?_"

"_Because_, I would kind of like to escape!"

"Well, maybe you haven't really thought about it, but escape is nearly _impossible_, and there's a very good chance that we could all get killed because of your efforts!" I could feel my blood begin to boil. I was getting really sick of all of this. They continued to argue, and every word echoed through my head, giving me the prelude to a horrible headache. Ryan jumped to his feet, and paced threateningly towards Anthony. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled loudly. Both heads spun to look at me. "I know that we're in tight quarters, and I am _very_ aware of our current situation, and I think that the best way of maintaining our sanity and getting out alive is not to_ be at each other's throats all of the time!_ And the way I see it, we're all stuck in this together, and the only way we're going to _get out_, is if we help each other! GOT IT?!" I drew in a quick breath, as I hadn't breathed for the entire rant. Everyone was quiet for a moment.

"Sorry." Anthony whispered.

"Yeah, me too." Ryan said. _Hmm…that was easy._ I realized that my heart was pounding, and I was breathing quite heavily. My palms were sweating too.

"Whoa, Anna, calm down." Nathan said from the corner of the closet.

"Watch your blood pressure girl…" Ryan muttered to himself.

"Are you talking to yourself?" Nathan challenged.

"It happens." Ryan replied. I pulled one corner of my mouth into a small smile. Ryan's face twisted into one of complete concentration.

"Any ideas?" I asked. He was quiet for a minute, and without looking at me, he replied.

"Sort of, I'm getting the beginning of one."

"Well, what is it?" Anthony asked.

"It might not work, but here's a smidgen of my plan: Have one of the girls scream _bloody_ murder, and then when the clowns come it, we knock them out, and _bam_, we're out." Ryan finished. "Oh, wait." He scratched his forehead. "We don't know how many clowns are out there."

"We could guess." Nathan said.

"And risk being outnumbered? I don't think so." I replied.

"Are we even being guarded?" Amy asked.

Everyone was quiet for a few seconds.

"…I don't know…that'd be something interesting to know." Anthony said. He walked over to the door of the closet, and tapped lightly. "Hello?" Amy rolled her eyes melodramatically.

"Oh _please…_" she stood up quickly, fluffed out her dress, and marched to the door. She banged on the door violently with both fists. "HEY!!!" Before she had stopped pounding, a clown from the other side banged back louder than she had.

"SHUT UP IN THERE!" Amy jumped back in surprise, and then gave a small smile.

"There."

Holly chuckled.

"That's my girl."

"So what do you think we should do?" I was speaking to Anthony, but Nathan answered.

"I suggest that we just wait. We're all tired, and there's no reason to waste our energy on trying to escape. What're they gonna do?"

"Kill us." Holly said in a deadly whisper.

"One of us will keep watch." I suggested. Someone snorted.

"Ha. I call sleeping."

We eventually decided to just sleep. A few of us claimed to be light sleepers, and they'd hear the door unlock and open when someone was coming. We were all tired enough to just agree. Amy lay down on Holly's legs, and the boys all took separate corners. I slept with my head on my one arm, trying to keep my face off of the cold ground. I stared at the wall opposite me for a little while, but soon darkness took me, and I drifted into a deep sleep.

* * *

We all must've been in a deep sleep; because none of us heard the doors unlock and open. I was awoken violently by a swift kick to my back. I writhed in blind pain for a brief second, and then shot up to check the disturbance. We were all slowly awaking, but stumbling to our feet as fast as we could. I got to my feet first. I took a quick step to balance myself, and ran into the free hands of a clown. He spun me around, and held me fast by my elbows. I let my head bob onto my chest for a moment, but jerked upwards a few times to try and jerk out of his hold. He kneed me in the back as a response. I slumped to the ground, still restrained, and decided to stop wriggling.

"Hey now…" I heard a familiar and frightening drawl. "You wouldn't wanna get yourself into more, ah…_trouble_ than you are now, would you?" I looked around in fear to find the source of the voice. The Joker strolled steadily into the room with his hands behind his back, and turned to walk towards me. He motioned crazily with one of his hands as he spoke. I felt my eyes widen and my heart speed up. He began leaning close to me, close enough, that I couldn't see anything past his messily painted face. I couldn't bring myself to look at his smoldering eyes, so I dropped my gaze to the floor.

"Hey." He said sharply. "Look at me." He smacked his lips once. I didn't respond fast enough, and he grabbed my chin violently, and threw it upwards to match the level of his face. I whimpered from the force of his action. I closed my eyes. He responded with a light _smack_ to my right cheek. My eyes flew open out of anger.

"There now, that wasn't so hard." He leaned away from my face. He now had my full attention. His breath smelled of something rotting, and it still lingered in the air even after he leaned away. "I think I can handle her myself. Let her go, Marco." The clown that was holding me shoved me violently into the Joker's open arms. I felt my face fall into the scratchy fabric of his vest, and his arms close around my body. I used my arms to push myself away from him. He held me in an awkward embrace with strong force, and nuzzled the top of my head with his nose and chin.

"Let's go dearest, we'll miss all of the _fun_!" he yelled maniacally. He let me out of the embrace, but seized my left wrist, and pulled me out of the closet. I shrieked in surprise, alarm, and pain as I turned behind me to watch the clowns go inside the closet and close the doors.

"Let go of me!" I shrieked, trying to pry his gloved fingers off from around my wrist. He didn't acknowledge my attempt. He picked up the pace, and began to jog up the metal stairs to the second level. "HEY!" I yelled in frustration. Suddenly, he spun me around by my wrist so that he faced me. I took a few steps backwards, but he seized my hair, and pulled myself closer to him. I put my free fist on his vest and pushed with all of my might, but all I felt was pure muscle, and I knew that he overpowered me.

"Shu-_t_ _up_." He popped his 't' again, and his voice became harsh and demonic.

"Don't hurt me…don't….please…" I gasped. He just looked at me with his rubbed off black eyes, and then released my hair, and continued to canter up the stairs. He was holding my wrist so strongly, that my fingertips were beginning to tingle, and I could see my hand getting paler. We finished ascending the stairs, and we took a sharp right, going down the main hall. Without any warning, he turned left, jerking my wrist, and causing me to yell out again in pain. He glanced at me from over his shoulder, and rolled his eyes extravagantly. He turned back to his course, and soon we arrived at the furthest classroom in the hallway. The door was bashed in, and the windows were cracked. The teacher's desk was littered with an assortment of weapons, knives, papers, and pencils of various sizes. The whiteboard was shattered, and the desks had been slid out of their neat rows into haphazard positions. The Joker suddenly threw me onto my stomach onto one of the desks. I felt the air forcefully fly out of my lungs, and I clutched my stomach were I'd hit. I began to lean up, when he grabbed my neck painfully, and shoved me back down. I was lying in an upside-down 'U' position over a desk.

"Why are you-agh!" I cried out as he smacked my back with something hard. I clutched at a bar underneath the desk. I turned my head to see him clutching a yardstick, and raising it above his head to strike me again. I saw him swing it savagely towards me, and winced for the blow that never came. I turned to look at him again, and he was walking around to lean down towards my face. I felt myself shrink inside, trying to get as far away from him as possible. I smelt his breath, and I knew he was close.

"Ya know," he started, making a show of removing his gloves one finger at a time, "I picked you out from the ve-ry beginning."

"I…what?" I replied breathlessly.

"C'mon, you're a high school student. Surely, you're not that stupid."

"I'm not. I'm just confused." I choked out.

"About what, kitten?" he stroked my dangling hair hanging around my face. I yanked my face away, he grabbed my chin and returned my head to its previous position.

"Things! A lot of things! For a start-" I felt another _whack_ on my back, and I attempted to roll over to get out of the awkward and uncomfortable position. Instead, he pushed me off of the desk, and I fell with a loud _thump_ to the classroom floor.

"Ah! Just let me-!" he rolled me over onto my back, and smacked me across the face.

"Hold still!" he yelled demonically. His tone scared me so much, that I froze out of fear, not obedience. "Very good." He straddled my body, sitting on my lower stomach. He adjusted his position, and I felt his crotch rub against my thigh. I sobbed once, loudly. He ran his hand down my cheek, and lowered it until it stroked my breast, and he continued to lower it to my stomach, where he became preoccupied drawing imaginary figures all over it. "Shh, shush, shush…" I began to whimper. He slapped me once again, and that sent me into sobs.

"Stop it!" I yelled as a defense. He raised his hand to hit me again, when suddenly, his weight disappeared. I closed my eyes, learning to keep on my guard around this guy, when I heard loud grunting, and punches landing. I opened my eyes in curiosity, and saw the Batman throwing powerful punches as the Joker.

"RUN!" he yelled in his deep voice. I didn't need telling twice. I jumped up, and bolted down the hallway.


	12. Holly

**A/N: Hello everybody!**

**Now, this is when the story gets fast paced, so try to keep up. Feel free to message me questions, if you're confused, and remember; if the chapter changes on your second read or so, you're not going crazy. I've just changed the chapter because of a hole in the plot or something. For example, if you were observant enough, you noticed that 'Riley's name changed to 'Nathan'. This is because I was getting too confused between Ryan and Riley. I mean R and R! You get it, don't you? Any-which-ways, thank you so much for keeping up with this story. You guys are the reason I write. Ready? And here, we…go!**

……………………………………

_Keep running. Just don't stop. Keep running. Remember to breathe._

I had to keep repeating these phrases to myself to keep me from collapsing to the ground in total exhaustion and crying. I began crying anyway, and it was slowing my pace down. I was surprised that I hadn't run out of water in my body from crying and sweating all night long.

_Where does he want me to run to?_ The Batman had finally decided to intervene, and now he was telling me to run. Just _run._ No specifics. I decided to narrow down my options.

_Well, I can't go back to the Athletic Storage, since it's been infiltrated by clowns. My friends…I sure hope they're okay…_A sob racked through my body, but I steadied myself to finish my thought process. _The Library's out of the question, its too big. The Debate room…I don't feel safe there anymore. Stay put?_ Before I'd finished my train of thought, I screeched to a dead halt in my tracks.

Breathing heavily, I doubled over, and put my hands on my knees. My legs were aching, and my heart was pounding. I stood up wearily to check my position. I was…well…I didn't really know where I was. The 1200 hall was to my left, and I'd just exited the 2500 hall. Our school was divided by two floors, the lower floor was labeled with a 1, and the upper floor by a 2. So judging from that, I'd sprinted down the hall, all of the way back to the commons, and then went down the stairs.

I stood up straight and put my hands on my hips, still breathing heavily. I turned my head from side to side several times, trying to decide what to do. Since I was on the complete other end of the school than where my friends were, I decided to start to head back there. I began to jog back down the lower level of the school, but I was exhausted enough that I just ended up stumbling not-so-stealthily down the hallway. I stumbled just past the 1300 hall, and slumped against the wall. I let my head lean back against the cold stone, and closed my eyes for a moment. I was tired enough that I could've fallen asleep in the middle of the hallway, with the Joker loose.

I was startled awake by a yell.

"ANNA!"

My head shot up, and I felt my heart lurch. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. I threw my head to the side to see who was calling me. To my surprise, and extreme relief, it was Amy.

"AMY!" I got up clumsily, and ran to hug her. We collided, but the impact bothered neither of us. We just hung on each other, not even worrying about the other four people, uh, make that three, (Holly ran and joined our cornucopia) people watching us cry and cling to each other.

"The Batman…he came and took the clowns out!" Amy gasped.

"He's so big! I-I didn't even realize-!" Holly splurged.

"He took them by surprise. I don't know how he knew where we were." Anthony cut in.

I chuckled. "He's the Batman…he could do anything. It's a good thing he _finally _decided to intervene."

"We need to get somewhere safe." Nathan said.

"I would love to. But where?" I asked.

"The pool's down this way. The locker room doors have an actual deadbolt lock and room for a padlock if we can find one. Once we get inside we'll have to bunker down. Find a place where's there's two ways in and out, so that we don't run into the same problem we had in the Debate room."

"Okay. Let's get moving." I finished. We all began cantering towards the pool. Nathan led the point, Holly after him, then Ryan, Amy, myself, and Anthony bringing up the back. And the entire time, Anthony never took his hand off of my shoulder.

* * *

Finally arriving at the locker room, we all sat down in complete exhaustion. Anthony turned and locked the dead bolt before collapsing onto a bench.

"I cannot WAIT for this night to be over." Holly panted.

"If we ever _get_ out of this place. The SWAT team has got to be coming or something…" Amy said between pants.

"They've got to be. This long, and they're not concerned?" Nathan said.

"We've been locked in this school for like, what? Six? Seven hours?" I asked.

"Something like that. I lost track around midnight." Anthony replied.

"Huh." I grunted. I leaned my head against the cold lockers, savoring the cold metal against my hot skin. No one spoke, and the only sounds were our heavy breathing, and the occasional rustling of a dress. I lifted my head after several minutes, and saw that everyone but me was asleep.

_I might as well follow their example_.

I let myself lie on the cold metal bench, and fall into sleep. My thoughts faded into a dim memory, and my muscles relax, and melt into the bench.

* * *

I startled myself awake, when I almost rolled off of the bench. My muscles tensed, and my heart lurched. I threw myself up, and rubbed my eyes. Everyone was still asleep, but I couldn't relax after that scare. I stood up, and paced around the locker room. The boring brown lockers were peeling, and I occupied myself with peeling the paint off of the edge lockers. After I got bored with that, I wandered over to the sink, and put cold water on my face and neck. I was tempted to wash my makeup off, but decided against it.

Amy sighed, and rolled over. I looked at my best friend. I couldn't help but feel bad for her…she'd been through a lot, and hasn't complained too much.

A jolt from the dead bolted door threw me back down to earth. I stared at the door in horror.

The entire door shook on its frame as another _bang_ echoed through the room. Everyone started, and was silent as we watched the door shake and rattle on its hinges. _How did they find us?!_

"Run!" Nathan gasped. We didn't need telling twice. Ryan was the first one to run through the locker room, and we all followed in quick succession. The locker room was in the shape of an 'L', and we ran along the shorter edge, away from the locked door. The door on the other side of the 'L' led to the pool, and I guess that's where we were headed.

Several loud gunshots rang through the locker room. Then the bangs were followed by a few metal _tings._ They had shot through the lock. Running footsteps were gaining on us. Holly let out a whimper, and we all ran faster than ever before. Ryan reached the door to the pool, and wrenched it open for the rest of us.

"Water?" I shouted to no one in particular.

"No! Stay out of the water!" Anthony shouted back. We ran around the large rectangular shaped pool, not bothering to strategize or plan. This was quickly becoming a free-for-all.

"THERE THEY ARE! GET THEM!!!" The shout echoed through the vaulted ceiling, and I turned to see three clowns running around both sides of the pool, trapping us on the far side.

"Bleachers!" Ryan yelled. The bleachers for the swim meets were still erect, and stood on the far side of the pool, the one closest to us. We all ran up the stairs of the humongous bleachers, not sure of what to do when we got to the top.

"TRAP 'EM! DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY! USE THE DARTS IF YOU HAVE TO!" _Darts? What?!_ We reached the top of the bleachers, and stood there hopelessly as the clowns closed in.

"Split!" Nathan screamed. We split into six random directions. I made a beeline down the rows of bleachers, and towards the diving boards. I didn't see where anyone else went. I glanced behind me, and didn't see a pursuing clown. I did see Holly being closely pursued by a clown, and Anthony turning to face another one. The third clown was no where to be seen.

I climbed onto the ladder of the small diving board to get a scope visual of the spacious room. I still couldn't see the third clown. I stood on top of the small diving board, bouncing gently above the deep, still water. I watched Anthony grab the clown's gun, and wrench it away from its aim. He then attempted to punch the clown, but the clown saw it coming, and ducked. Nathan sped around the other side of the pool towards the clown that was closing in on Holly.

Holly screamed, and threw her arms up to shield herself from the oncoming clown, but Nathan reached the clown first. He full-body tackled the clown onto the concrete, and began attacking the clown with fast and powerful blows from his fist. Holly stumbled and fell onto her back.

Amy screamed aloud, and pointed towards the commentator's box. The third clown was sitting behind a large mounted gun, and it was pointed directly at me. I stumbled in surprise, not sure of which direction to run. I never took my eyes off the clown, and felt my stomach shoot into my throat as I fell right into the cold water. The bubbles curved around my body, and then floated upwards to the surface. I felt my ears pop from the pressure of the water. I kicked my legs to swim upwards, but they became tangled in my skirts, and the cut of my dress didn't allow me to raise my arms higher than my shoulders.

I held my breath, puffing up my cheeks to keep the air from escaping.

_Get to the surface. Get to the surface!_ I shouted at myself. I knew my swimming was futile. But then I remembered something I'd learned from my swimming teacher when I was eight.

"_If you feel too tired to swim," she said, "turn around onto your stomach, and do the 'Dead Man's Float'." This will naturally help your body float to the top of the water. Then you ran roll your head over and breathe._

Thank you Cindy! I immediately rolled over, and let my arms dangle downwards into the dark abyss. I kept my eyes shut, not looking forward to the sting of the chlorine. Gooseflesh rose on my arms and legs, and my lungs were screaming for air.

_Come on…_I pleaded with buoyancy. _Come on!_

I finally felt my back break from the water. No sooner had I felt it, I flipped onto my back, and gasped in the open air. The room was filled with screaming. I felt my legs sink, and I was now sitting vertically in the water. The weight of my dress was causing me to bob up and down, shoving me halfway in and out of the water, but by kicking my legs rapidly, I was able to stay partially afloat.

Holly was on her feet, and running with a clown in hot pursuit. Anthony was rolling on the ground with another clown, and Nathan was lying on the cement breathing heavily. Amy was hiding between two rows of bleachers, and Ryan was bending down to help Nathan.

"SHE'S GETTIN' AWAY!" a clown shouted.

"THEN SHOOT HER!"

"_NO!"_ I shouted, watching the clown pull a gun from his belt. "NO-!" I bobbed beneath the water just as I opened my mouth to yell, filling my mouth with water. I coughed and sputtered, and watched helplessly as the clown aimed the gun at Holly.

I let out one scream, just as Holly turned to face the clown. A single shot rang out, and I watched the blood spurt and spray from the shot onto the cement, and onto my face. Holly stiffened, and then fell in slow motion into the pool.

Immediately, blood began pouring out into the clear, blue water.


	13. In Cold Blood

**Ah, it's truly been too long! I am so sorry about that!**

**This chapter was especially difficult for me to write, mostly because of the little 'stand still' moment that occurs later. Let me know what you guys think!**

**Loves,**

**Dani Jones**

*** * * * *  
**

The pool of red expanded through the water at an alarming speed. With every fast pump of her heart, more blood spilled out of the wound. The blood spread throughout the water until I was soon literally swimming in Holly's blood.

"HOLLY!!! NO!!!" A scream echoed through the room. Everything was going in slow motion; the sounds around me echoing into numbing silence, just like in the movies…Anthony plunged into the water from out of nowhere, and swam towards Holly's sinking body. I was bobbing up and down in the crimson water in complete shock. Instead of my heart racing, it had stopped beating altogether. The sounds in the room turned to a dim memory, and the horror of that night was turning fuzzy, like losing reception on a television. I closed my eyes, and leaned my head back into the water; my tears became lost in the bloody water.

_Holly…_I opened my eyes, and they stung instantly from the chlorine. _Holly!_

I surfaced, and swam frantically towards her. Anthony was splashing all over the place as he flew towards her. Before, swimming was impossible, but now it was imperative. Anthony dove underneath the surface, and I followed suit.

The chlorine stung my eyes once more, and the blood made the water translucent, and harder to see through. The free-floating blood thickened through my hair, and rushed around my skin, giving the hairs on my arms a sticky feeling. My stomach rolled once, but soon passed. Ahead of me, I saw Anthony wrapping his arms around Holly's body, and begin kicking to the surface. I dove a little further down, and pushed her upwards by her feet.

We reached the surface several seconds later. The room was in an absolute panic. A clown had Nathan on the ground, and was pointing a gun at him. Amy was sobbing on the ground, and Ryan was sprinting down the risers two at a time.

Anthony and I choked and sputtered as we struggled to the edge. I climbed out of the pool, and pulled Holly out by her arm. I laid her on the wet cement, and leaned over to examine her. Anthony jumped out of the pool, and sat on her other side.

I ran my hands over her dress frantically, trying to find the entry point of the bullet. After a few swipes, I found it. The gunman had shot her at point-blank range, and the bullet met its target; the direct center of her chest. I sobbed once, and pulled my hands away.

"It's-it's no use!" I cried. "It's a fatal hit-!" sobs took over the rest of my sentence. Anthony leaned over Holly, and put his hand on her throat, feeling for a heartbeat. He probed for a few seconds, and then planted his mouth securely over hers. I pinched her nose closed, remembering my basic CPR training from a few years previous.

He blew twice into her mouth, and blood spurted from her chest. I don't know why he was trying to save her…we both knew she was going to die. I put my hand on his chest as a gesture to stop administering CPR. I shook my head slowly, feeling the tears coming, and beginning to spill over. Holly's body suddenly seized up, and Anthony and I jumped back in surprise. She began jerking up and down, her eyes rolling back in their sockets.

"Hold her down!" Anthony gasped. We both put our hands on her shoulder and stomach, using our body weight to hold her seizing body to the ground. The tears were really beginning to spill over now.

"Holly…please stop…" I sobbed. As if she heard me, her body stopped seizing, and she began wet rasping sound; a noise that will haunt me for the rest of my life. Blood pumped out from her chest once more, and her eyes stopped rolling. Then, she let out one rattling breath, and her eyelids relaxed. Her eyelids became ajar, and with one last spurt of blood, she was gone.

I looked into her clear eyes, staring at nothing and her mouth slightly agape. In that moment, I saw that Holly was a very beautiful young woman…something I unfortunately never saw before. The reality of her death hit me like a brick wall.

"Holly. No. No, no, you've got to stop. Stop it…now…I mean it! _Stop it!_" I screamed into the room. I wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her violently, but instead I focused my anger at the cement below me. Her blood was spread out quite generously onto the concrete, and I pounded my fist into the crimson liquid.

"_NO!_" I screamed once again. I pounded my fists repeatedly onto the ground, sobbing and screaming her name. Anthony ran over, and tried to console me. He grabbed my arms forcefully, yet gently.

"Anna…she's gone…shh…" He whispered evenly. I screamed out in fury, and threw myself into Anthony's arms, sobbing hysterically. The blood on my hands rubbed onto his shirt. The clowns were probably on their way over, but I didn't care. I _dared_ them to come…I felt a stinging on my fists, and I opened my eyes to look at them. I'd pounded them so hard, that they themselves were bleeding.

I wrenched myself free of Anthony's grip, and threw myself onto Holly. I whispered her name a few more times, and felt, at that moment, completely and wholly defeated.

I was thrown off of Holly by a rough hand. I screamed and threw myself back onto her body. A foot kicked me hard in the head, and I fell off of Holly, blinded momentarily by the pain in my temple.

"Grab 'er!" a harsh voice commanded. Immediately, both of my arms were restrained, and pulled behind my back. My rage resurfaced, and I thrashed in complete fury. I was able to free one of my arms, and I used it to smack at the clown.

"Let me go! Let me go, you bastard!" I felt a sharp prick on my mid-neck, and I felt a warm feeling spread through my entire body, leaking slowly downwards. I suddenly lost the feeling in my legs and mid-section. My legs collapsed, and fell onto the cement uselessly. I didn't feel the impact as my knees smashed against the ground. The clown dragged me out of the room by my arms. I stopped fighting, and looked as Holly's body was beginning to go fuzzy, along with the rest of my vision. The last I saw before everything went black was my best friend's body, being kicked by a clown. My body had now failed me as a defense, and I felt my neck numb up, and my head fall back. I attempted to yell out before I was plunged into darkness once again.

* * * * * *

_The image of Holly's body was burned into my mind. No matter what, I couldn't get the vision of her convulsing body out of my head. And when I looked away, I just saw another one of my friends' bodies, being beaten even to death by a vicious and heartless clown. I wish they would all die, just as inhumanly, and horribly as Holly had…or better yet, I would like to kill them myself._

I opened my eyes, only to see more darkness. My tears had dried, and were cracking on my skin. The blood on my hands and dress was dry too, and flaked off with every muscle movement. I began to reach up to wipe away the flakes, but a searing pain shot through my shoulder. I gasped in surprise and pain, and squeezed my eyes closed. I quickly realized that my hands were bound behind my back. With what, I did not know, but nevertheless, the binding was cutting into my wrist, and cutting off the circulation to my hands.

"Anthony…Amy, ah!" I gasped again in pain as I tried to sit up. My ankles were bound too. But in the darkness, nobody responded. I gritted my teeth together and rolled over. "Guys?"

A low moan sounded from a few feet away. I arched my head back to find the source, but the darkness was too thick.

"My head…" the voice groaned again. It was definitely a boy who said it.

"Nathan? Anthony? Ryan?"

The voice groaned again. "Why am I tied up? Where am I? Hey…hey where is everyone?!" the voice suddenly got agitated and began to yell. "HEY! PLEASE!"

"I'm here! Shh!" I yelled back. The yelling was replaced with heavy breathing.

"Amy? Where's Amy?" I finally recognized the voice as Nathan's.

"I-I don't know…are you okay?"

He exhaled loudly. "I guess so…my hands are just tied, and my shoulders are on fire, but I guess I'm fine. Where's everybody else?"

"I think they should be around here…" I writhed on the floor, turning myself around. I grunted in pain as my face hit something. The object I hit moved.

"Ow…"

"Amy!" I shrieked. I moved my face around, feeling her bared foot with my cheeks. "Amy, are you okay?!"

"How long have I been asleep? Where's Holly?" she said in a deadly whisper.

I bit my lip, pushing the resurfacing memory of her bloody corpse out of my mind. "Amy, you know where-"

"_Where is she? Damn it, where is she?!_" she squirmed on the floor, kicking me a few times in the face.

"Amy, stop it! She's dead, okay?! She's dead! The Joker's clowns killed her!" I expected a hot lance to stab me in the side while I talked about her death, but for some reason…it had no effect. My nerves were completely numb.

"No…" she whispered and began to sob quietly. I wished I could cry with her, but there was no more will, nor water left in my body to do so. I swallowed loudly.

"I'm done," I said firmly.

"What do you mean?" Nathan asked.

"I'm _done_! This is ridiculous! We've been on the defense this entire night, and the moment I get onto my feet, I'm going to move to the offensive. If I have to kill every clown in this school, I will. It will never equal what they've taken from me."

"Anna, calm down, please…"

"NO! I WANT THEM ALL DEAD! I HATE THEM ALL!" I screamed.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Anthony piped in suddenly from my other side.

"Oh, you're up. Great, now we can plan on how to kill them." I said shortly.

"Kill? Anna, no…killing them would only make us no better than them."

"So? They deserve to die."

"Would you like to be the same as the ones that killed Holly?"

I paused.

_Like rubbing salt in an open wound._

I guess I wasn't as numb as I thought. His reasoning hit me square in the face.

"N-no,"

"Then you can't kill them. Don't worry though, we'll find a way to get out of here." He said evenly.

"Well, we can't really do anything until we can get out of these-"

The room was suddenly filled with blinding light. Everyone yelled out in protest or surprise.

"Wakey, wakey little children! It's time to welcome a new day!" A scratchy voice announced bouncily.

The Joker skipped into the room, slapping us all with his long coat as he jumped up and down.

Amy screamed out, and hid her face from him. Anthony stared neutrally at him while Nathan gave him a fiery glare. I just watched this bizarre specimen's every move. The Joker stopped jumping up and down, and strode over to Amy in two steps.

"Hey," he said, slapping her shoulder lightly with the back of his hand. "Look at me," Amy shuddered visibly, and snuggled her face into the ground. "Look at me!" he growled demonically. She gasped loudly but didn't move. He reared his leg up, and kicked her side forcefully. She rolled onto her back with a scream. The Joker leaned towards her face slowly.

"That's better…now, I can't understand why you're being so _difficult_…" she rolled her head away from his face. He grabbed her hair and pulled her upwards towards him, arching her back. "Ya see? There you go being difficult again! Gee, I try to reunite you with your old boyfriend, and you just keep _re-sist-ing_." He split up the words jaggedly.

"What?" Amy whispered. _No way…Justin?_ "Justin?" she said hopefully.

A clown from the doorframe walked in slowly, and stood next to the Joker.

"He's been one of my most useful henchmen. He got a lot of things done for me; including eliminating one of your numbers. I, uh, told him not to shoot, but hey, I can see why he had to do it. You kids will just _never_ learn…"

I turned my head slowly towards the clown. Justin took off his mask, and showed himself to us. I noticed Holly's blood spattered all over his body armor and holed coat.

"You bastard," I said harshly.

"Justin?" Amy squeaked.


	14. Final Lap

**A/N: Hello fellow readers! Sorry for the delay, but I've been very preoccupied with my "**_**Initiated**_**" fic. The saddest and scariest part of writing this is that somewhere in my word processing unit, I've lost my outline to this story! ARGH! Now I'm writing it completely blind! Great…**

_***NOTE*: In the last chapter, Holly began to have a seizure as she was losing blood. As a certified EMT, I feel that I need to clarify what to do in case of a seizure. In the chapter, Anna and Anthony held her down. DO NOT do this. This is a very common and deadly mistake. By holding down the victim, you can cause tearing of muscles, cracking of ribs and other bones, and the possibility of puncturing vital organs. Instead of restraining them, let them thrash around, and move any objects nearby that might injure the victim. Just thought I'd clarify. If any of you have medical questions, feel free to ask me. It's what I do. *grin***_

"Why?" Amy sobbed, just higher than a whisper. Justin looked down at her with cold eyes.

"I had my reasons," he replied shortly. Amy sniffled loudly, continuing to sob.

"You son of a bitch," I growled as I rolled onto my side. "You dirty, lying, murdering-!"

My string of insults was cut off by a cackle from the Joker.

"My, my! Aren't we a feisty one!"

I had to bite my lips together to not scream back at him. I reasoned that it was wise right now to keep my silence.__

"You're crazy," Ryan muttered from the ground. The Joker's head spun to look at him.

"What?" The Joker said in a low voice. Ryan lifted his head, and looked at him defiantly.

"You're…_crazy_!"

The clowns in the room all went silent; even Amy stopped sobbing.

"No I'm not," the Joker said quietly. He reached down in a flash, and grabbed Ryan by the collar of his shirt. Ryan yelled out in alarm. "No I'm _no-t_." The Joker popped his 't', as he roared demonically into Ryan's face. Keeping Ryan held by his collar, the Joker leaned away from him, and muttered something quickly to a nearby clown. The clown nodded shortly, and sped from the small room.

"What are you doing?" I hissed, craning my neck to look him in his smoldering black eyes.

"We're going to send a little…ah…_message_." He replied, glancing at me briefly. The clown returned carrying a damaged handheld camcorder. The Joker swiped it from the clown, and tinkered with it for a few seconds. He clicked the 'record' button, and the red light flashed into all of our faces; indicating that he was taking video of us.

"Smile! We're recording live to GCN!" he said, pointing the camcorder at all of us. Amy turned her face to the floor.

"Well, well, well! What have we here?" The Joker narrated to the camera. "Six, uh, make that five, of Gotham's finest heroes' kiddies! They look a little frightened, but let's see if we can get a few words out of one of them. You!" The Joker kicked Amy's back. "Ya have somethin' you wanna say to the camera, doll-face?"

Amy turned hesitantly towards the camera, taking a deep breath. "Dad…if you're listening…I wanna go home. Please," she gasped. "I wanna go home…" The rest of her sentence was drowned out by the Joker's scratchy laughter.

"'Daddy, please! Daddy come and save me, please!' You hear that, Sergeant? Your daughter wants to come home to you and the little woman. And I'll let her go…_unharmed_, if you'll uh, just do one little thing for me."

I listened as the Joker breathed heavily on the camera lens for several seconds.

"The Batman…" he growled, pressing the camera against his smeared oil-painted face. "Give me the Batman, unmasked, and unarmed. Then I'll let your little children go."

"Don't do it, dad!" Nathan shouted, interrupting the last of the Joker's speech. The Joker aimed the camcorder straight into Nathan's face; growling into his upturned ear.

"_What_ did you say, little boy?"

"Dad, listen to me…he's just trying to get to you. I'm expendable; don't listen to the ravings of a madman!"

Nathan's plea was cut short by a blow to his face from the Joker. Nathan grunted loudly in pain as I shrieked.

"_Stop it! Stop!"_ The camera was in my face soon after. "Batman is a symbol of hope, and makes it so that we don't have to be afraid of demons like you! He's more important than all of us-!"

"Shut up, Anna!" Amy screeched. "I wanna go _home_! If you keep talking, he'll kill us like he killed Holly!"

The Joker laughed maniacally, drowning out the rest of us. "Now _that's_ what I like to see! You kids turning on each other. This is what happens when a friend dies, real _craziness_ ensues! This should be _fun_!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I screamed over his laughter.

"Oh, you silly girl; I'm about to kill one of you, and let all of Gotham watch!"

A gloved hand grabbed the back of my neck, and pulled me backwards. A voice hissed into my ear.

"And the best part; you kids get to pick the one who dies."

My eyes widened. _Pick?_

"Never!" I yelled. The Joker thrust me up to the camera in his other hand.

"Now for a little commercial break! We'll be right back with the decision, folks! Stay tuned!" The Joker laughed once more as he clicked off the camera.

The room was in pandemonium.

Amy started screaming, Nathan and Ryan began yelling protests, Anthony was scrambling to get out of his binds, and I was stumbling to my feet to punch that Joker right in the mouth. Unfortunately, the liquid that I had been injected with hadn't worn off yet, and my wrists and ankles were still bound. I got to my knees before I keeled over on top of Amy.

"Now, who's going to be the lucky one to make a special appearance on GCN? Will it be the outspoken leader?" The Joker tapped my forehead with his toe, "The weak best friend?" He nudged Amy's leg with his foot, "or the drooling, desperate boyfriends?" The Joker jumped over Amy, and stood by the door. "You've all got two minutes to decide. Make it snappy!"

With a bounce, the Joker exited the room, followed by the clowns, and turned the light off, plunging us all back into darkness.

"Me; let him kill me." I muttered to no one in particular.

"No way in hell," Ryan spat, rolling over.

"I think I'm getting some feeling in my legs," Anthony reported, shifting from one of his sides to the other.

"So what do you think?" Nathan asked, breathing heavily. "The police may or may not abandon the search for us to capture the Batman. If they're even looking for us, that is."

"Don't be ridiculous; they're looking." I replied.

"You don't think the Batman would turn himself in, would you?"

"Let's pray he doesn't."

"I hope he does," Amy sniffed. "It's about time that that vigilante got his just desserts."

"Stop it, Amy." I hissed, venom laced into my voice. "We'll get out of here, you watch."

The door reopened. _It couldn't have been two minutes!_

Justin stepped through the door and flipped on the light again. "The Joker wanted me to watch you."

"What do you want?" I snipped.

Justin put his hands up in a mock surrender. "Hey now, I'm working to get you guys out of here."

"Save it,"

"Really!"

"What could you possibly have to gain by being in the Joker's service? You know he'll just leave you high and dry." Anthony asked confidently. Justin paced over to him slowly.

"I have my reasons,"

"Like what?" I asked.

"I. Have. My. Reasons." He said shortly.

"Fine, don't share. Get out."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"He'll kill me!"

"Not my problem,"

"SHUT UP!" he roared.

"GET OUT!" I screamed back. Justin glared at me, turned on his heel, and jogged out of the room.

"We need to come up with a plan, _fast_." Ryan threw in.

"I know! I know! I just can't…think!"

"How do you think he's going to kill us?" Amy whispered.

"Slowly; the Joker's one for theatrics." I replied. Amy gasped, and then resumed crying; quietly this time.

"We need to make a decision." Anthony pressed.

"No,"

"Anna!"

The door banged open once again.

"Time's up!" the Joker said, jogging into the room. He made sure that his coat slapped all of us as he stepped over our incapacitated bodies. "Who's the winner?"

We all fell silent, avoiding his gaze.

"Me,"

My head spun in shock as Anthony turned to face the Joker. "They chose me, so let them go."

The Joker raised his eyebrows. "So they picked the strongest one? Well, all the fun we'll have!"

The Joker grabbed Anthony by his arm, and dragged him over all of us and out of the room.

"NO!" I yelled.

"Don't worry, you'll get to watch." Justin said, grabbing Amy's arm and mine, tugging us behind him. The other clowns grabbed Ryan and Nathan as they all followed the Joker away from our prison. They drug us across the stone floors for a minute until we reached the Commons area. The clowns dropped us all on our faces.

"Untie 'em." The Joker ordered. The clowns all brandished large knives, and cut us all loose. Justin was not very skilled with a knife; he nicked my wrists and ankles a few different times. I sat up, feeling immediately light headed as the blood rushed down from my head. The clowns stood around us with their guns pointed at our heads.

The Joker clicked the camera on. "We're back, ladies and _gentle_-men. Did you miss us?"

Anthony's bindings were not cut. The Joker placed him on the ground in front of the circle of clowns.

"Let me introduce you to the star of tonight's show, Mr. Drooling and Desperate!"

I cringed at the Joker's description of Anthony. He was the _farthest_ thing from desperate! He was the strongest of us all. He saved our lives multiple times tonight. I don't know if I'll ever get to thank him…

"Anything you'd like to say to our studio audience?"

Anthony paused, looking directly at the camera. "Yes," He took a deep breath. "To my parents, I love you very much. Dad, do _not_ turn in the Batman. He's the only figure of hope we have in this entire dying city. To the Batman, if you're watching. I want you to ensure my friends' safety. I will be indebted to you forever." He glanced away from the camera to me. "Anna…I never told you this, and I don't think I'll ever get a chance to. You are an amazing woman…and I know that you'll survive this hellish ordeal. You're strong, and I-"

"Oh that looks like all the time we have for opening statements! Now, on with the show!" The Joker cackled, taking a jagged knife out of his pocket. Amy screamed, and put her hands over her mouth.

The Joker placed the knife on Anthony's upper arm, and made a small line with his knife, cutting the flesh underneath. Anthony grunted quietly in pain.

The Joker watched Anthony's expression carefully. He pushed the knife in deeper, drawing scarlet blood in alarming quantities. Anthony let out a small yell, and the Joker smiled. He continued carving into Anthony's arm. I watched the cuts, and soon realized that he was cutting letters…no, _words,_ into his arm.He finished cutting, lifted the knife off, and wiped the bloody blade off with his glove.

He turned, and stalked towards us menacingly. The clowns parted for him.

"Hey," he said. "Look at me," I lifted my head, and saw that he was speaking to me. He raised his glove up, and put it towards my face. I cringed away, but a clown touched the back of my head with the nuzzle of his gun. The Joker touched my cheek with a single gloved finger, swirling it around. I felt Anthony's warm blood smear across my face. The Joker switched fingers, using his middle one, and traced the corners of my mouth, putting drops of blood on them. He switched to using his palms, as he rubbed the drops across my cheek roughly. I caught a reflection of myself in his bottomless eyes. He'd rubbed a clown-like smile onto my face.

"Hmm, doesn't look half-bad. What would you think of making it _permanent_?" he chuckled, raising his knife to my face. I screamed and turned my head to avoid his blade.

"Come on! They chose me, not her!" Anthony yelled. The Joker placed the blade on my face, but didn't cut. He turned to face Anthony.

"Patience, kid! I'll get to you soon…"

I screamed again, squeezing my eyes shut as he pushed the blade onto my skin. I felt a drop of blood fall from the cut and roll down my neck.

"STOP IT!" Anthony bellowed.

The Joker let out a loud grunt, and his knife disappeared from my face. I heard a struggle, so I opened my eyes.

The Batman was struggling with the Joker on the ground, landing blows all over him. The clowns stood in confusion as the Joker was being beaten by the Batman.

"Help me, you _fools!_" The Joker screeched. One by one, the clowns abandoned the circle, and joined in the fight. When the last clown abandoned us, I stood up, and ran towards Anthony. His head was bobbing up and down and his eyes were wide.

"Anthony!" I gasped, grabbing the sides of his face with my dirty hands.

He coughed, lifting his eyes slowly to meet mine. He smiled a groggy smile.

"Get outta here…" he muttered.

"Not without you!" I said, grabbing his good arm with both of mine, and pulling him to his feet.

"I'm feeling kinda dizzy…"

"You're losing a lot of blood. Come on, please walk…" I begged, towing him slowly behind me.

Ryan and Nathan ran to his side, and took him from my arms. I almost objected, but now was not the time to argue. We made our way out of the Commons, and towards the main doors.

"GET THEM! DON'T LET THEM GET OUT!" a voice shouted from above. I looked around in alarm as two more clowns ran down the main stairs and towards us.

"MOVE!" I yelled at the group. Amy's legs wobbled uncertainly as she ran ahead of the group.

I glanced back at the Batman, who was now engaging the three clowns at once. I looked around in alarm as the Joker was no where to be found. I swiveled my head around in complete horror. _Where is he?_

I didn't get to dwell on the question for much longer, because the clowns that were heading down the stairs were heading straight for us.

"You guys run, I'll distract them!" I yelled. They picked up their speed a little more and continued heading for the main door. But it was still painfully far away…

A clown cried out in pain as the Batman delivered a final punch. The clown's gun flew of off his belt, and skidded across the ground. It came to a halt a few feet from me.

_I've never fired a gun before…_

Even though my dad dealt with guns on a regular basis, I'd never even held one.

_Why not start now_?

I shuffled forward, and grabbed the weapon, keeping the barrel pointed away from myself. I didn't know much about guns, but I know _that_ much…

Keeping the barrel pointed at the ground, I ran towards the clowns. I pointed the barrel at the clowns as they drew dangerously close.

"Don't move! Or I'll shoot!" I screamed. The handle of the gun became slippery as my palms became sweaty. One of the clowns threw their head back and laughed.

"Don't be afraid, stupid! She's not gonna shoot-"

Losing my patience, and desperate to draw attention away from my friends, I pointed the gun towards the ceiling and fired it. Both clowns jumped in surprise. My wrist throbbed from the kick of the gun.

"I won't?" I shouted back. "Get back!"

The clowns took one step backwards.

"Put your hands up!"

The clowns didn't move.

"NOW!"

The clown who doubted me didn't obey. The other clown's hands shot up into the air.

"Now girly…" The clown said evenly. His hand wandered to his belt.

"Don't even-!"

But I was too late. He whipped a gun out of his holster, and aimed a shot at me. Luckily, my feet acted faster than my mind; my feet side-stepped to the side quickly as he pulled back the hammer and shot in the place where I stood a few moments before. I turned, and ran up the stairs.

Both clowns were in hot pursuit as I neared the top. I looked down where the Batman was fighting the other clowns. The Batman was gone, and the clowns were unconscious on the ground. One of them was stirring, but I didn't have time to watch him get to his feet before another shot rang through the air.

I rounded the top of the stairs and took off running towards the Debate room. The clowns got to the top of the stairs, and continued after me. I turned another corner and entered into the doorway of the library. I waited until the clowns were closer before aiming my gun at them.

_If you kill them, you'll be no better than the one that killed Holly_. Anthony's words rang through my mind.

As much as I wanted to follow Anthony's words, I decided that I wasn't technically _murdering_ them; it was self-defense.

_Yeah, I'll go with that._

I cocked the hammer back on the gun, and waited. The first clown came into view, and I aimed…I fired one shot, and it met its mark. The bullet buried itself into his chest. The clown gave a groan, and fell to the ground.

The thing that shocked me was the blood that spurted from the wound. In the movies and TV shows, there was never any sort of gruesome squirts of blood…

The second clown was bearing down on me as I gawked at the clown I'd just killed. He gave an outcry as he reached out to grab me. I raised the gun again and fired. The shot was far off of its aim, but it still hit him. The clown screamed in pain as he clutched his arm and fell to the ground. Instead of finishing him off, I turned and began to run down the stairs back to the Commons.

"The doors are locked!" a male voice screamed from below.

"Go to the cafeteria doors!" another panicked voice answered.

I was about halfway down the stairs, when a weight crashed into me from behind. I fell forward onto the flat landing midway between the second and first floor.

"You are causing unnecessary _problems_!" The voice yelled into my ear. With a surge of adrenaline and rage, I pushed the attacker off of my back, and into the wall. I stood, and faced him

It was Justin.

"Why won't you _die_?" I screamed, lunging for his throat.

"Why do you want me dead so bad?" he yelled in reply.

"You terrorize Amy, killed Holly, you're with the Joker, and I hate you. Do I need another reason?"

"Listen to me! You don't understand-"

"What is there to understand?"

My voice cracked as I roared at him.

With all of the strength I could muster, I grabbed him by his lapels, and swung him around to throw him down the remainder of the stairs. I released him; unfortunately his hand found a grip on my upper arm.

The momentum threw him and me down the stairs. The metal stairs jammed painfully into my back as Justin and I pummeled downwards. We landed at the bottom in a heap. I shoved him away from me, and began punching haphazardly at him.

"Anna, stop it!" he yelled as I continued landing punches on him.

Instead of replying, all I could do was yell out in rage.

A gunshot rang through the air, making my heart skip a beat. The Joker stepped down the stairs rhythmically, aiming the gun at me and Justin.

"Boss!" Justin yelled. "Boss, get her off me!"

The Joker continued pointing the gun at us, not firing a shot. He finished the stairs, breaking into a run. Fear froze me in place as the Clown Prince bolted towards us. He raised the gun once again, and fired a shot. I closed my eyes, waiting for the death blow.

Instead, I felt a warm liquid splatter against my arms. My eyes sprang open to see Justin with a bullet through his head, bleeding onto my dress.

I screamed aloud, and threw myself away from his body. The Joker didn't miss a beat. He leapt forward, and grabbed my blood-spattered arm.

"_Stay_." He ordered.

The tone of his voice froze me in place. Besides, the adrenaline was wearing off; my energy was nearing depletion.

"Let-" I began, but a blinding blow to the side of my face silenced me. I spluttered and gasped aloud as my vision trickled back. The Joker grabbed my shoulders with his hands, and lifted me towards him; leaving me an inch from his face. His rank breath was nauseating as it fogged across my face.

_So this is how it ends…_

The Joker began talking, but all I could concentrate on was an image of me in a body bag and the faces of my grieving parents as they wheeled me into the morgue…

_WHAM_.

I felt my body fall to the cool, hard floor. My eyes fluttered closed in pure exhaustion.

I had enough to strength to open my eyes, and see the Batman, once again, tackling the Joker to the ground.

"GO!" The Batman yelled gruffly to me.

"Come on, let's go!" a voice pleaded. I felt someone tugging at my sticky arms. I averted my eyes to see Amy, struggling to pull me to my feet. "Please…get up!"

Somehow, I was able to get to my feet, and stumble towards my friend. Amy took me in her arms, and helped me move. I slumped against her more and more with every step.

"Anna, the cafeteria door is locked. We have the same problem that we had at the beginning of the night." Nathan reported. I barely acknowledged him with a weak nod of my head.

"Smash the glass!" Amy suggested.

"Come on, none of us have the strength to do that." Ryan replied.

"We're trapped-!"

The moment Amy yelled in despair, the skylights on the ceiling above us shattered. Everyone's arms shot up to shield themselves from a shower of glass. A bright light shone from above.

_Oh look, Heaven…_I thought foolishly.

A booming voice over a loudspeaker echoed through the halls of the school.

_"Hostages, please stand by."_

Walkie-talkie jabber and whirring static filled our ears as a steel-runged ladder fell to the floor.

"One at a time." A gruff voice growled behind us. The Batman stood at ease behind us.

"Where is-?"

"Don't worry; he's down." The Batman glanced back at the crumpled form of the Joker, lying in the middle of the floor.

"You first," I whispered. I looked at Amy, indicating that I was speaking to her. She looked up at the ladder reluctantly, but grabbed onto the rungs, and scrambled up anyways. She got about halfway up before the Batman ushered Ryan and Nathan onto the ladder.

"Anna, go." Anthony said.

"I'll go last,"

"Stop trying to be a hero, and go." He said shortly.

That did sting a bit, but I brushed it off. I reached up, and grabbed onto the rungs. The moment I put my weight onto my arms, I felt pure exhaustion take me. My muscles released the rungs, and I fell backwards into armored arms.

"I'm…I'm sorry…" I gasped.

"Don't worry; you boy, go next." The Batman replied as he repositioned me in his plated arms.

Anthony was obviously annoyed, but obeyed anyways. Anthony grabbed the ladder with his bad arm, and tested the weight. He winced visibly as he pulled on it. He eventually found a system that worked. By using his good arm, he was able to pull himself higher, and use his bad arm to keep him in place as he ascended.

The Batman waited until Anthony, was halfway up, before tossing me over his shoulder. The blood rushed to my head as I clutched onto his utility belt on his lower back.

"Hold on," he commanded. With surprising agility and strength, he scaled up the ladder. My vision became blurry and spotted as I felt my consciousness slipping. The Batman finished ascending the ladder, lifted me out of the school, and into the cool night air.

I turned my head to see a fire truck, with one of those long ladders that can reach rooftops. Amy, Nathan, and Ryan were all sitting at the bottom, being attended by EMT's and Paramedics. Anthony was about halfway down the large ladder, being helped by a fully-clad firefighter. A bright search beam was shining all over the place, reflecting brightly into my face at haphazard moment. The Batman helped me shift my position on his shoulder as he settled into the last ladder.

The ladder was the last barrier between me and my freedom.

"_ANNA!_" I could hear the familiar voice of my father screaming above the rest. His voice was reassuring, yet…a distant memory.

"ANNA!" His voice was getting nearer, but my consciousness was slipping faster than ever.

_Stay awake…STAY AWAKE…_

_Stay…awake…stay…_

**A/N: Wow, Justin is a coward! I wrote this all in one sitting, tell me what you think!**


	15. Closure

A bright light flashed into my face just as something else pinched the inside of my elbow. My head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, and my temples pounded in time with my heart. I felt like I was dying.

Feeling like you're about to die is a very curious sensation. It is one that I will remember for the rest of my life, and yet, one that I very much wished to forget. I felt so…helpless.

"Mmm…" I moaned, moving my head from side to side.

"Hold still, honey," A soothing voice said from my left.

"Dad…?"

"Yeah, I'm here sweetie,"

My eyelids were heavy, and were difficult for me to open. I was able to get them open after several tries.

My vision was very blurred, but I was able to make out the dark outline of my dad, leaning out my bed and touching my forehead. His hand was blazing hot.

I took a deep breath and tried to sit up.

"No, no, stay down." He said, pushing my shoulder down gently. My vision cleared after I blinked a few times, and I could see that I was lying on a small cot in a large white tent. The room I was in was separated from the hustle and bustle by a loose flap that hung limply in the doorway. I could see outlines of armored SWAT team members walking past my room; the majority of them were holding elaborate-looking machine guns.

"…Where am I?" I asked quietly, watching the shadow of a SWAT team member walk around the outside of the tent completely before disappearing from view.

"You're in the Command Center of the SWAT team base. They set up on the football field behind the school."

"Mmm," I replied, far too tired to make any other sound. I rolled my lips inwards, and felt how cracked and dry they were. "Could…I have some water…?" I mumbled, running my also dry tongue across my cracked lips.

"Yeah, of course!" Dad's hand left my forehead, and I heard him scuffle from the room. He returned a few seconds later with a cold bottle of water. He unscrewed the cap, and lowered it to my lips. I closed my eyes and drank deeply, letting the water leak out from the corners of my mouth and dribble down my front. I didn't care…it felt liberating.

"Honey, I'm so sorry…" he whispered, wiping the water off of my cheeks with the corner of the blanket that was draped over me.

"Dad, it's just water,"

"No, I meant about tonight; I-I should've felt something coming; veteran's instinct and all. I can't help but feel like-"

"Dad, stop," I rolled my lips inwards again and relished the feeling of water on my tongue. "There was nothing you could do. It was some freak accident. Besides, the Joker is unpredictable. Not even the Batman can stop his plans once they're in action."

"I know that, but still…"

"Drop it. Never once tonight did I blame you for what was happening. It was just…one of those things…"

Dad nodded slowly, taking my hand and stroking it with his thumb slowly.

"Hold on a second," I started, leaning my head up from my pillow to look him in the eye. "How long were you all staked out?"

"Fifteen minutes after the first 9-1-1 call. They just _flooded_ in. We responded very quickly, and set up a Command Center to devise what to do."

I paused, and stared blankly at my father before my face twisted into one of frustration; the full understanding and weight of the night finally settling into my nerves. I was no longer in a state of shock and puzzlement, but now…from the outside…I could fully understand what had happened to me. What happened to Holly.

When she was killed, I thought I understood. I thought I was feeling the gravity.

But I was wrong.

"You mean that you were right _behind_ from where my life was threatened the _entire_ night?" I hissed, clenching my fists at my side.

Dad looked suddenly afraid. "…Yes…we devised a plan that took all night long. We were afraid to just barge into the school-"

"You _knew_ that I was in _danger_, yet you _waited_ all night long instead of busting down the doors and doing something?"

"Anna…"

"_HOLLY IS DEAD, DAD!"_

I screamed aloud and pounded my fist into the hard cot under me. "How could you?"

"Stop thrashing!" Dad dove for my right arm as I yelled, and held it in his iron grip. I felt a sharp pain sear up my right arm as he touched it. I breathed heavily and looked down at my arm, seeing an IV line hanging out of my arm and a large needle poking into my vein. I'd jostled the needle just enough that it was now bleeding quite freely.

"Oh, ah…let's get the doctor in here…" Dad said, sounding nervous.

"That won't be necessary," a soft voice came from the doorway of the room. I glanced over my dad's shoulder to see Commissioner Gordon standing in the doorway with a gentle smile. "I can fix that."

"No," I insisted. "Go away. I want you all to just _go away_."

"I understand that you just want to be alone, but I'm afraid that's impossible." Gordon said calmly, walking into the room with one of his hands exposed and lifted to his chest, to signal his innocent intentions. In his other hand was a large, plastic bag labeled "evidence". I couldn't tell what was in the bag from where I was, but I did not particularly care at the time. "Let me see your arm,"

Dad handed my arm to Gordon, who brandished a small roll of medical tape and a dressing from his pocket and began to wrap my arm.

"Thanks," I mumbled, thoroughly embarrassed at my outburst from a few moments ago. While he was wrapping, I took a moment to survey myself. I saw that I was bandaged from my left shoulder to my wrist.

There were also multiple gashes and cuts on my bared legs that I had not aware of while I was still in the school. The palms of my hands were bruised and covered with slashing cuts that had been cleaned up with something that stunk of antibacterial applicant. My bare feet were wrapped and I had a brace on one of my ankles. My face also stung a little bit, and I vaguely remembered glass showering down above me as the SWAT team entered the school…

I was surprised at the extent of my injuries; I hadn't noticed them before during the night.

_Of course not; I was much too busy fighting for my life._

I sighed and tightened my lips in an attempt-smile in thanks to the Commissioner as he released my arm and I pulled it away. I glanced over the Commissioner's shoulder, and saw the small plastic bag he was holding sitting on the ground next to the tent flap. Now that I had a few more moments to observe, I noticed that it was completely filled with an article of clothing. One that was a dulled-burgundy with scattered jeweled flowers and shredded completely down one side.

Realization struck.

_My dress._

My eyes snapped to the blanket the covered me. I lifted it a foot off of me, and saw that I was in a short hospital gown that only fell to my knees and tied behind my neck.

_What the…_?

I lowered the blanket back down, and looked the Commissioner in the eye.

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked pointedly, glancing at the bag by the door.

"Evidence; we're going to run DNA tests on it and see if we can recover any trace of the Joker. Hopefully, we'll be able to tag it to some other information on some other database."

"You haven't had luck so far; what makes you think you'll make a breakthrough now?" I asked.

"You can never be sure. One day, he's going to slip up, and when he does, we'll be waiting for him. Besides, who knows? You were in very close contact with him for some time in the night."

I gaped. "How do you know that?"

"Testimonials and such. Your friend, Anthony, told us everything we needed to know. He's getting his arm bandaged, but he should be free to come and speak to you soon. I could also tell by looking at your dress. His face-paint was smeared around on it. He'd have to have touched you in order for the paint to appear on your dress, obviously." He paused, playing with his fingertip before continuing. "I can also tell that you were sexually assaulted by the locations of the paint…" He said softly, slowing down as he muttered the last part.

My father looked furious.

"He did…try some things, didn't he?" Gordon's said, sounding more like a statement than a question.

I bit my lip and nodded slowly. "The Batman showed up before he could get too far."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I needed to know for the prosecution's sake."

I nodded again and stayed silent, rubbing the fabric of the blanket between my fingers, feeling suddenly very self-conscious lying damaged in front of two very upstanding and respected figures.

"Anna…I hate to ask you this, but we need to know something else." Gordon began.

"What?"

Gordon paused, clearly looking uncomfortable. "Where were you when your friend, Holly, was killed?"

I gritted my teeth together. "Why do you want to know?"

"Anna, we're looking for her right now, and her parents would like the body. Please help us."

My mouth opened and closed several times before I was able to utter a sound.

"By the pool,"

"South end?"

"Mm-hmm," I bit my lip again and nodded slowly, feeling a fresh wave of grief and hate wash through me, filling my eyes to the brim with tears. Dad put his hand on my shoulder as I let out a single sob, dipping my head down and feeling the tears roll from my eyes and down my face. I tasted them as they rolled into the corners of my lips.

"Thank you," Gordon said quietly, turning around and leaving the small room without another word. I continued crying, covering my face with both of my hands in a lame attempt to hide it.

"Let it out, honey…" my dad muttered soothingly, rubbing his thumb on my shoulder as more sobs croaked from my mouth.

"She…she…I tried…but I couldn't…" I gasped between sobs.

"I know, I know," he whispered.

We sat in silence for several seconds while I collected myself. I lifted my head up, and wiped my eyes with the length of my free arm, sniffing loudly to clear my runny nose.

"Whoops, they missed one," he said, reaching towards my head and pulling out a small piece of cubed glass.

I crinkled my eyebrows as he held the small piece of glass in his palm.

"And that's another thing," I said, wiping the last of my tears from my cheeks. "Why'd you come from the _ceiling_ of all places?"  
Dad smirked a little bit. "We wanted a dramatic entrance. No, not really…we didn't know how many clowns we'd be up against. Besides, the Joker's been known to rig doors with explosives. We didn't want to take any chances. We also didn't think you'd be right underneath our launching point; we were planning on running around the school to locate you. We had a plan and everything."

"…Oh,"

"Yeah…" Dad clicked his tongue once and looked around the room as the conversation fell dead.

I let my eyes unfocus as I reviewed the events of the evening; amazed at what I'd endured.

My heart skipped a beat as the Joker's face came into my head, smirking in his demonic way and his eyes peering into my own.

"Dad," I said intensely.

He looked at me, puzzled by my intensity.

"Dad, did they get him? Gordon mentioned prosecution and DNA evidence. Does that mean they got him?" Excitement bubbled up into my chest as I thought about the Joker being put to death after everything he's done.

But that feeling sunk to the pit of my stomach as my dad simply stared at me, then shook his head.

"No, honey…"

_What?_

"He disappeared after his altercation with the Batman."

_No…no!_

Indescribable rage bubbled back to my brim. That bastard was still out there…

_Of course he wasn't caught. It would be too easy…_

"…Honey…?

"Don't," I growled. I didn't want to talk. I just…I didn't know what I wanted to do. I just…wanted it all to go away…

"I called your mother. She's worried that you need therapy –"

"I said 'DON'T', dad!"

Silence settled into the tent again, amplifying my anger to unhealthily disproportionate. But I didn't care. I didn't care about anything. I was in a state of indecision; should I be vengefully angry? Or irreversibly sad? Did I want to sleep? Cry? Eat? I didn't know.

The tent flap pulled back, revealing a very ragged-looking Anthony. A large bandage wove its way up his arm, encasing his entire bicep and elbow. He held his arm stiffly to his side from the lack of flexibility. My breath hitched in my throat, looking at his appearance with wide eyes. My brain must have been ridiculously distracted not to notice his gaunt appearance. His face was cut and bruised – much like mine – and he had dark circles underneath his eyes, as well as lines in his face. He looked as though he had aged ten years overnight.

Aside from that, he was still very handsome. A small smile graced his lips as he saw me.

"You're worse off than I am." He said, quipping.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm just cut and bruised; you had a nice slice up your arm."

He glanced at the wrapping on his arm; the blood was already seeping through it.

"You need to get that changed." I muttered, glancing awkwardly at my dad, whose eyes were flickering back and forth between Anthony and I.

"I'll just…ah," he mumbled in reply, standing, and kissing me on the forehead gently before slipping from the tent. Anthony looked slightly embarrassed for a moment, but recovered his decorum, sitting in my dad's vacated spot.

"You can use some of my wrappings." I said, pointing to the elaborate medical kit that sat on the ground by my feet.

"Thank you." He replied, giving me a small smile, and reaching down to get it, putting it in his lap. With his one arm, he extracted gauze, a dressing, and padding, setting them side, and then returning the bag to the ground.

"Let me help you."

I sat up in my bed, wincing as I felt a pinch on my arm, feeling that blasted IV pull me back onto the bed. It was amazing how much control a dumb little needle had.

"Be careful," Anthony said, jumping up to push me gently back into the pillow.

I gritted my teeth. "I'm fine."

"I'll come to you."

He slid his chair closer to my makeshift cot, putting his arm in my lap. Carefully, I peeled the layers of bandages away, tossing them nonchalantly onto the floor. The bandages were very soiled with his blood; some of it spattering onto other layers as I took them off. He was still freshly-bleeding.

As I removed the last layer, I saw the deep cuts. There were many, and they looked like haphazard lines. Why lines? They zigzagged everywhere across the inside of his arm. I unraveled the last strip, looking at the entire design.

I gasped.

They weren't just random lines; they were letters. Letters that made a three-word phrase.

"Oh, my God…" I whispered, tilting my head to the side in horror, reading the words.

'_Quid Ita Serius?'._

"What…?" I managed, feeling bile rise in my throat.

"It's Latin; I had that class last year." He replied just as quietly, looking down at the words, too.

"Do you know what is says?"

"It's a pretty rough translation, but I think it says, 'Why so serious'?"

The phrase meant nothing to me, personally…but the fact that he had carved words into Anthony's arm was enough to make me wretch. I didn't care what the words meant, but the Joker was obviously trying to convey a message. That was his entire scheme. The whole time.

Without another word, I helped him re-wrap his arm. I couldn't think…my thoughts were all jumbled in a chaotic pile, not able to exit through the small valve leading to my mouth. I felt very…tired. Fatigued; spent.

"I feel sick." I mumbled, leaning back into the pillow. Anthony chuckled once.

"I'm sorry…"

"It's not your fault."

I looked up at him. He leaned forward in his chair, his hand resting on the edge of the cot. His hand moved slowly towards mine, as if he was silently asking for permission. I didn't move. Soon, his warm hand was over my frozen one.

"Anna, though I had to endure this hell…I'm glad you were with me."

I could only manage a small smile.

I continued to look up into his face as it neared. I wasn't moving…he was.

I closed my eyes as he got too close, and a moment later, I felt his lips on mine. Warmth exploded into my chest, filling me to the brim. Though tonight had indeed been a trip through purgatory, it was as if everything was temporarily healed.

* * *

Holly's funeral followed a few days after. The proceedings were very solemn – as they should be – but with an undeniable infusion of fear. Parents, teachers, friends, even the Gotham police force and the Mayor were in attendance of the program. Her funeral went quickly; I prayed it wouldn't drag by. Holly would have wanted it short and sweet.

But there was no closure in her casket being lowered into the ground. If anything, it was the unspoken understanding that fear had gripped the city, and no one – not even the children of Gotham – were safe.

* * *

**_Six months later_**

Although I was reminded of that night almost every day – as much as I tried to be normal – things were looking up. My father had been promoted at work, giving us a higher income, and allowing me all new clothes, and a remodeled bedroom. I'd also been going to a therapist weekly, and she was helping me to cope with the unbidden fear that riddled my mind, not to mention, my nightmares. I was able to hear people discuss the Joker and not burst into tears, now. That was a sure sign of improvement.

Anthony and I had also been dating, and things were pretty serious.

I loved him. And he, me.

Thinking of him dispelled the horror of the incident. He was like my own personalized therapy. Senior year had ended, and I was preparing to attend Gotham University.

But in the meantime, I was relaxing at home; enjoying the quiet environment around me.

Since the three-month mark of my therapy, I'd been able to stay home alone without falling to pieces. Mom was out shopping for curtains, and dad was at work. I had a small bag of chips, chomping on them idly whilst watching a ridiculous documentary on the importance of earthworms.

There was a sudden, but muted, _bang_ right above my head. Now, my house usually made noises, like every other house, but since that incident, any little noise set me on immediate edge.

My imagination was beginning to run away; I had to go see what it was. I set the chips down, stood slowly, and walked very slowly to the stairs. I stood at the bottom for what felt like an eternity before I was brave enough to venture up the steps one-by-one. The middle stair creaked, so I made sure to step over it. I didn't want whatever (or whoever) might be up there to know I was coming. What was the logic in that? I've no idea…

Gathering the shards of my courage, I peeked my head around into the master bedroom first, seeing nothing. I gained more and more courage as I checked the rest of the rooms upstairs, seeing nothing. The last room to be checked was mine, on the right-hand side. I nudged the door open carefully, and swept my eyes quickly around the room.

Nothing.

_Phew._

I stepped into my room and sighed heavily, slowing my heart down.

_See? There was nothing to be afraid of. This will be an interesting story for –_

I heard my door close. But I had not touched it. I paused, staring at the wall with wide eyes. My heart began pounding again. With a slow inhale I turned my head.

"Why, hello there." A voice hissed; one that I had tried my best to forget. A scream bubbled in my throat, but the sound wouldn't come. I stared at his smeared face, horror crashing down on me like a tidal wave.

The Clown Prince.

"I've missed you, my little tart."

The Joker reached behind himself and locked the door, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"We meet again…"

* * *

_**A/N: And that's it! I started this a few years ago, and it feels indescribably wonderful to finish it now. Now I can finally cross it off my list! I read back on this story, and I can see that my writing has improved a lot from when I first started this. I plan on re-vamping this later when I get the opportunity. **_

_**So what did you think? Leave me a review and let me know.**_

_**Loves,**_

_**Dani Jones**_


End file.
